NCUR 2020 Presenter
On January 15, 2020, the abstract for the poster "Analysis of Privacy Leaks on Twitter" was accepted into NCUR 2020 that was going to be hosted in Bozeman, MT. This study was important because people are frequently updating their Twitter feeds with images and 'tweets' that can reveal personal information about themselves. Today, people will take a picture without considering the private information that can be revealed within these images. Due to the accessibility of mobile devices and the internet, the posting and sharing of content on social media networks (SMNs) have increased exponentially.
As stated in previous works that were written while conducting research on the VIPER Project, privacy leaks include any instance in which a transfer of personal identifying visual content is shared on SMNs (DeHart and Grant, 2018). We also notated that private visual content (images and videos) exposes intimate information that can be detrimental to your finances, personal life, and reputation (DeHart and Grant, 2018). Private visual content can include license plates, driver's licenses, college acceptance letters, house keys, etc.
During this research, it was also found that we will have to follow users' posting trends because people have found creative ways to post sensitive information on Twitter unknowingly. Hashtags and new phrases make it difficult to pinpoint all of the sensitive information that is posted on Twitter. For example, when you search #driverslicense, you will find some images of driver's licenses, but most of them are sample licenses and stock images. But, when you search the phrase "licensed to drive" and/or #stayoffthesidewalk, you will find multiple images of license plates, car keys, paperwork, and driver's licenses. All of these items can not only give away a person's home address, but they can also be used to also find out more information about a person such as their phone number, identifiable features, etc. We need to gain the ability to successfully locate and return these images so that they can be monitored and filtered out. These filters will allow all Twitter users to have a positive social media footprint.
Unfortunately, NCUR 2020 was canceled due to COVID-19, so Makya was never able to present her poster in person. Her poster was still recognized by NCUR as officially accepted.
For more information, check out the links below!