Do you really think your Facebook profile is private?

Do you really think your Facebook profile is private?

Oftentimes, Facebook users think that since they have changed a few privacy settings on their Facebook profile this will make it completely private to the public; however, this is not the case.  Your Facebook profile can NEVER be COMPLETELY private.  Here's why your profile is not private

1. Even if you change every setting to "Friends Only"  , the public is still able to search and find you.
2. According to James Vincent, Facebook runs on advertising and the more information it can encourage you to share, the more targeted ads it can sell to companies and brands.  This is the agreement everyone should be happy with when they sign up to a social network and the only sure-fire way of avoiding your information being shared with somebody is to not join in the first place."  This quote shows you that your Facebook information is always being shared to companies and brands in order for Facebook to run advertising on your page for profit.  Of course, this is another reason why your profile is not private. 
3. According to Declan McCullagh, "Even if someone is not a Facebook user or is not logged in, Facebook's social plug-ins collect the address of the Web page being visited and the Internet address of the visitor as soon as the page is loaded--clicking on the Like button is not required. If enough sites participate, that permits Facebook to assemble a vast amount of data about Internet users' browsing habits."

Even though your profile can never be completely private there are still ways you can make your page as private as possible.

According to Bernard Marr, 

"Here are ways to better protect your privacy:

1. You can tighten your settings security settings on your Facebook account. Here is a great list of the top ten must-know security settings for Facebook.
2. You can download software to block all tracking activities of your web searches or make any tracking attempts visible. Two tools to look at are Ghostery and DoNotTrackMe
3. You can use the 'InPrivate' mode of Internet Explorer, the 'incognito' browsing when you use Google's Chrome or 'private browsing' option in Safari. This will disable the browsers to store information about your web searches.
4. You have to read the terms and conditions of any apps you download and use. You can check the privacy scores of any current Facebook apps using tools like PrivacyFix"

If you want to be completely private, you should simply not join social media!

Feel free to leave comments and suggestions

Determining if a newspaper article originated from a press release

Determining if a newspaper article originated from a press release

A press release is "planned and continuous communication designed to provide information about an organization, an issue or a product."  Many newspaper writers use press releases to write their news articles.  Today I found an article from Hattiesburg American that appears to have been written using a press release.  I came to the conclusion that a press release was used because..

1. The article provided information about a product.
• Hattiesburg Eye Clinic is offering a new cataract procedure  (New new Catalyst Precision Laser System).
2. The article contains messages in persuasion.
• By reading the article, one might be persuaded to have the new cataract procedure.  The article contained information on how quick the procedure would be, and how painless it would be.  Both of these would persuade someone to have the cataract procedure.
3. The article contains information that a Public Relations Practitioner would want circulated to the public.
• A news release provides information to media and others about information you want circulated to the public.
• This news article from Hattiesburg American provides this same information, which means it could of came from a press release. 
4.  The article is pointed toward what the client wants.
• Press releases are pointed toward what the client/organization wants, and this article does just that. 

Now, one can see why I think this article was written using a press release.  Overall, the article looked like it came from a press release, which brought me to my conclusion.   

Feel free to leave comments and thank you for reading.

-Devonte Smith

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