An interesting question now-a-days is whether or not government should be able to gather information about citizens by looking at social networking sites. While a person could argue this use of social networking sites by government is fair or unfair, I think it all really depends on the case. For instance, in general i do not think it is appropriate for the government to snoop around people’s information and personal life just because they can. This would be considered intrusive and unnecessary; however, if the government has a legitimate reason to be using the social networking site to get information this may be acceptable. But when would it ever be right for the government to intrude on a persons personal life? Well let’s say someone went missing, or was suspected as a criminal. By looking on that person’s facebook or myspace, they may be able to acquire more information to either help find that lost person, or prove them guilty/ innocent. The important thing is that the government does not over step its power and rights and start going into people’s social networking pages just because they can. I feel that it is only acceptable when it will help government in some substantial way. However, it is very possible that the government will not respect their boundaries, so in that case people should just be that much more cautious about what they put on their social networking pages.
Government’s Use of Social Networking sites
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