Privacy issues on social networks

Abstract

The privacy is a need for humanity since the creation of civilizations. In social networks the common point is that each user has to create a profile to define his or her own identity. The profile description includes many items with privacy settings to tune their visibility degrees for only owner, friends, friends of friends and sometimes for public. After enrolment stage, users extend their social connection graphs with accepted new friends and these graphs grow without the control of individual due to the new friends of friends. Hence, with high probability, the shared information of member is generally available to public and can be retrieved by users around the world. This article is prepared to give an overview on the reasons of privacy concerns and risks of SNs, and summarize the current and future possible solution directions for researchers and governments.