IMARK Lesson 3: Privacy, Intellectual Property and Access to Social Media

Lesson 3 stresses on the fact that organizations and individuals need to be aware of some of the issues around the uses of social media and the challenges they present. It also highlights the following:

·         User agreement with terms and conditions

·         Securing of information with safe passwords

·         Good practices of individual privacy

·         Intellectual Property

·         Free/open source software

·         Reliability of content

Good practices are important to ensure privacy and security of data and information when using social media services. The internet now makes it easy to share and distribute electronic resources, and this sparks a debate on intellectual property and legal and technical implications.

Aside from public domain, there are alternative models for licensing content and software on the web. These are called creative common licences. Web 2.0 tools and social networking sites may face difficult conditions of access especially when working with a slow-speed internet or the use of inadequate hardware.