Reflection: Cyberstalking and Facebook Places

The above clip I have chosen is a News Channel feature report about a new Facebook application called Places. It is a useful app for users to check into locations and meet up with friends. Places users can share their favourite restaurants or saloons with their friends. Linkage between person and person can be tightened. For corporations and companies, the app allows them to promote their business by offering discounts through Facebook.

In my opinion, there is no doubt that new online applications provide convenient ways for people to enhance their lives with higher degree of efficiency and effectiveness. For Melissa Gallagher’s example, more Internet users learn of the shop and discount via the app. The promotional purpose can be achieved at a faster speed and for a wider network. However, the loopholes these new apps have brought about cannot be neglected. It is, at the same time, cyberstalking is promoted as it is easier for other people to locate or track down the users’ whereabouts. As a result, more problems regarding privacy come out. Criminal offenses like burglary might increase as people including strangers know that the person is not at the house, as suggested in the News Channel.

Some people suggest that laws and legislations can solve the problem of cyberstalking. In some countries, laws have been set up to deal with the problem. However, I personally think that there are problems regarding legislations. Firstly, the law can be enacted in the jurisdiction where the message was sent from or where it was received. Nonetheless, not many countries have set up laws against cyberstalking. With the open nature of the Internet, it is somehow hard to enforce and prohibit. Secondly, the crime is difficult to prosecute as it is hard to prove who sent the message. Net users can hide their IP address or even use a fake one. It is also time consuming to track any person down. The existing legislations have too many loopholes to be improved.

Before legislation can help, the only thing to be done to minimize problems of cyberstalking is to make wise decision for individuals. Users should be aware of how much of their information to be put out on the Net. Only in this way can privacy of individuals be protected and convenience be enjoyed at the same time.