Digital Privacy: Promoting the Responsible Use of Social Media

Social media has become deeply integrated into our daily lives, generating vast amounts of personal data. Nevertheless, many users either ignore or underestimate the associated privacy risks, failing to recognize the potential impact of having their information improperly exposed and misused. 

When personal data shared on social media is exploited for illicit purposes, the consequences can be severe: bank fraud, identity theft, account hijacking, extortion, and reputational damage. The digital footprint we leave behind can, unknowingly, become a weapon used against us. 

Under regulatory frameworks such as GDPR, CCPA, LGPD, among others, social media platforms must ensure data security through technical measures and privacy-by-design principles. Furthermore, they are required to provide clear tools enabling users to further strengthen the protection of their personal information. 

To enhance their security, users should keep their profiles private, enable multi-factor authentication mechanisms, avoid sharing confidential or sensitive information, and carefully assess the potential impact of each publication. Even in seemingly secure environments, any shared information can be replicated or misused beyond the data subject’s control. 

In addition to traditional risks, new threats arising from the use of artificial intelligence have emerged. Photos, videos, and data published on social media can be collected without consent to train AI models or be used to create hyper-realistic forgeries, known as deep fakes, which impersonate individuals and can severely harm their reputation. 

Privacy does not require abandoning social media, but rather using it wisely. Today, more than ever, organizations must safeguard their users' data, and users must exercise informed and cautious use of these platforms to avoid becoming their own vector of risk. 

By Uriel Bekerman, Director of GRC at Enveedo.