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- Title
Social Media and Privacy in the UAE: A Survey Research.
- Authors
Azzi, Abderrahmane; Dakhane, Samiya
- Abstract
Social media is one of the most important agents of social transformation in modern times. They play a critical role for millions of people. Platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and Snapchat, are used for socializing, posting updates, communicating with friends and family members, as well as sharing photos. The platforms assist individuals in connecting with thousands of people and hence have the potential of influencing people's lives including the potential negative impact of misuse such as re-sharing someone's data without their consent. Social media users are expected to use the social media platforms responsibly as privacy is essential in avoiding harm, distortion, public disclosure, and abuses. The study investigates privacy in social media from a legal and ethical perspective in the UAE. It addresses the concern of the users who might be oblivious of privacy, data protection guidelines and the gap in research on privacy in social media. The theoretical background is grounded in social utilitarian ethical theory as an ethical framework. The legal theory applies as it defines and sets boundaries for privacy and its different manifestations in social media. Privacy awareness is a crucial factor in social media websites. The providers of these platforms should have a level of responsibility to guide and enlighten users to take caution and prevent invasion of privacy on their personal information on these websites. The findings of this research paper assist social media users and institutions to be conscious and take precautionary to protect their private information and data. The Cyber Crimes Law (Federal Law No. 5 of 2012) in the UAE considers violating privacy on social media a civil offense. It punishes the offender with a fine of not less than AED 100,000 but not in the excess of AED 300,000. The majority of social media users are unaware of the methods to protect their personal information shared online as the technology is getting easier and sharing a photo is only one click away, they remain unaware as to how this might affect their lives. The study indicated that there are many related legal frameworks on online privacy in the UAE. The study shows from an ethical perspective, that the members of the sample do not have enough ethical awareness on the issue of privacy on social media. While the ethical perspective remains controversial, the legal perspective on the privacy of social media in the UAE is somehow solid, as it is based on many laws that protect the privacy of users; such as the UAE Penal Code and the Cybercrime Law, such regulations are the basis for the emerging laws that are growing due to the evolution of social media systems across the world.
- Subjects
UNITED Arab Emirates; SOCIAL media; DATA security; COMPUTER crimes; UTILITARIANISM
- Publication
University of Sharjah Journal for Humanities & Social Sciences, 2022, Vol 19, Issue 2, p569
- ISSN
1996-2339
- Publication type
Article
- DOI
10.36394/jhss/19/2/8