P2P File Sharing

File sharing is the practice of distributing files that are digitally stored on a computer. P2P file sharing is file sharing with the use of a software. Users connect to the peer-to-peer network with other users with the software to share files with each other. There is a big debate whether file sharing is ethical or unethical. In the article "Minnesota Mom Hit With $1.5 Million Fine for Downloading 24 Songs," Thomas-Rasset was made an example of the dangers of downloading and sharing illegal music files online. Some examples of peer-to-peer file sharing is using programs like LimeWire, Kazaa, Napster to download music for free. Other peer-to-peer file sharing such as Bit Torrents let people download illegal programs, music, movies, etc for free.

Privacy & Confidentiality

The issues of privacy and confidentiality is greatly related to new media. It is on the news all the time. Because almost everyone you know is on a social networking site, privacy and confidentiality is compromised. Everything you post on these social networking site is now public information. Anyone who clicks on your profile page would know who you. They may be able to see your personal information such as full name, phone number, school, birthday, home address, etc. Basically whatever you filled out in order to join the site. Therefore it is EXTREMELY important to set your privacy setting and limit the amount of personal information you are willing to give out. These sites are a big target for identity theft and companies to find what people are like. You should check out spokeo.com to see what they have found about you by putting together information on all public sources. It is pretty shocking of what is public.

Advice to Baruch College

A way Baruch could use new media to improve the college is to have a forum where Baruch students and other professors can interact with each other. The forum could be divided by different categories such as Baruch news and updates, general questions, departments, a marketplace to sell books, calculators, looking for roommates, etc. This would be really helpful for students so that they can have a place for their questions that other students are asking too. It would be the place to look for answers before going around the campus searching for an answer.

About My Term Research Paper

As a reminder, my research paper topic is Social Networking: A Purposeful Loss of Privacy. I used scholarly articles that I had found using the Newman Library database. I also used Google to find more about other topics that I included in my paper. I choose this topic because it is important to know all the dangers associated with posting your personal information online on social networking sites.