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Who is the ‘virtual’ you and do you know who’s watching you?

Lynne Y. Williams

Abstract

Navigating the minefield that comprises the privacy settings for the majority of social networking websites is at best a frustrating experience which leaves the user with the vague feeling that although they’ve left the house, the gas oven is still turned on. At worst, the host vendor of the social networking website deliberately prevents the user from modifying the privacy settings in such a way that the user’s privacy is genuinely protected. In all cases, the verbiage spelling out the user’s privacy rights as supported by a given site tends to be so convoluted that even the most hardened lawyer would have difficulty teasing the sense out of it. The ...

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