Social Media Limits Needs To Be Imposed, Said Australian Cybersecurity Professor

Following the footsteps of China and Korea, Australia is encouraged by an info security expert to take action against uncontrolled social media’s user information extraction for profit. Richard Buckland, Cybersecurity Professor at the University of South Wales in Sydney has expressed concerns about the high-profit margins of social media entities, like Facebook is earning beyond what it deserves from the personally identifiable information its users’ surrender to the social media giant.

“We trust these sites for communication and maintaining relationships with people… They don’t have any duty towards the people of the country (in which they operate). So we cannot trust these companies. It’s not that they are bad, but that is their nature. The nature of Facebook and other social networking sites is to survive and make a profit, not to improve the world,” explained Buckland.

Social media sites have captured a huge mindshare of users wishing for their contacts to connect with them 24/7, sharing information and their daily activities online and even on a live video service as Facebook live, Twitter Live, Instagram Live, and Youtube streaming. All without knowing the implications of their decision to share information, while skip reading the mentioned web services’ Terms and Conditions. The terms of service issued by social media entities are usually composed of lawyer-only readable words, but it exactly defines what information these entities extract and other details on how these chunk of information are monetized by those same entities, or contracted 3rd party entities.

“So, there is the need for proper control of the services of these social networking sites at the government, national, transnational and international levels to control bad practices,” emphasized Buckland. He recommends to the Australian government to take action, in order to protect Australian citizens from being highly at risks, especially with identity theft. Recently, Facebook itself encountered a cybersecurity issue when 30 million accounts were exposed to a security breach.

“If the governments leave their own interest and think about the citizens and regulate social networking sites like China and Korea, they can stop bad things happening. If social networking sites are regulated properly, some good things will also happen as Facebook helps in communities getting together. In the long run, these problems would be solved by having an educated population. Once people understand cybersecurity, benefits of collaboration of communication, social media would no longer be a problem. If people are not well educated they are easily swayed by emotional arguments,” added Buckland.

He recommends to the Australian government to take action, in order to protect Australian citizens from being highly at risks, especially with identity theft. Recently, Facebook itself encountered a cybersecurity issue when 30 million accounts were exposed to a security breach.

“I think we should look at the US experience with Russia during its Presidential elections in 2016. The best way is to learn from others` mistakes. So by watching what happened in the US we all can learn and think. I don`t think that the US government is really able to do much because of its passion for `free speech` culture. The challenges are so large as you are moving into so many areas. With quick movements, there comes the ability to do bad things. The largeness of diversity of India makes it an attractive target to bad people and vulnerable to crime, terror, and war. Indian people have good values and ethics, and communities are working together. I think, part of the solution to cybercrime will be people working together and trusting each other,” concluded Buckland.