This essay will discuss how social networking sites influence the nature and limits of privacy. There are various social networking sites such as Facebook, MySpace, Youtube, Twitter, Google Buzz and many more with different privacy settings and billions of people have joined these social networking sites in recent years. Social networking sites offer their users an easy way to share information about themselves. However, many users quickly discover that information they intend to share with their friends can too easily end up in the hands of authorities, strangers, the press and the general public. For example, job recruiters search these sites in addition to performing more traditional background checks on potential employees. Conducting a search using these sites may result in the recovery of a significant amount of personally identifiable information about an individual. (epic.org, 2010) As mentioned in the previous quote, social networking sites (SNS) offer their users an easy way to share information about themselves. However, no one knows, including social networking sites (sometimes), who will access the information available online about you. For example, in recent times thieves have been using SNS (e.g. Facebook, Twitter, etc.) to track people's locations and to find out when homeowners are on vacation. This type of issue makes SNS users vulnerable. However the problem doesn't end there; extends further when SNS users find that their every movement on SNS is tracked. A user's activity on SNS is not only monitored by SNS but also by others, such as partners. Tokunaga (2010) explains that estimates suggest that people are increasingly using SNS to engage in group...... middle of paper......ok [Online]. Available from: http://www.channel4.com/news/articles/science_technology/matthew+firsht+wins+libel+case+over+facebook+group/2357517.html [Accessed 20/12/2010].Leyden, J () Thieves used social network status updates to select victims [online]. Available from: http://www.theregister.co.uk/2010/09/13/social_network_burglary_gang/ [Accessed 22/12/2010].Zahn, A (2006) Facebook used to help stalkers [Online]. Available from: http://tv.ku.edu/news/2006/05/04/facebook-used-to-aid-stalkers/ [Accessed 12/22/2010]. CBSnews (2010) Facebook “Friend” suspected of Burglary [Online]. Available from: http://www.cbsnews.com/stories/2010/03/25/earlyshow/main6331796.shtml [Accessed 22/12/2010].Rosen, J (2010) The Web Means the End of Oblivion [online]. Available from: http://www.nytimes.com/2010/07/25/magazine/25privacy-t2.html [Accessed 27/12/2010].