The issue of personal data protection in social media

Social media has become a tool with its own distinct shape, vocabulary, and functions that has a place in practically everyone's life, interacts with society as a type of sociality, and has the ability to affect and modify it in a variety of ways. Social media networks collect personal information about users. They collect, handle, and distribute/share this data with third parties for their own interests. Individuals freely share a considerable quantity of information about their personal lives on social media, which has become an essential aspect in their everyday lives. There are some who believe that nothing can be hidden anymore and that privacy is getting increasingly difficult. The aim of our thesis is to identify the risks that personal data shared and recorded in social media, voluntarily or without sufficient information, may pose to individuals and the problems that will affect society in case of the use of such data; and also to show the importance of the philosophical-ethical approach in addressing the problem, arguing that legal regulations alone are not sufficient to solve and resolve all the problems in this context. The research consists of three sections. In the first part, after explaining the concept of personal data, the historical development of the right to protection of personal data is mentioned. The relationship between the right to protection of personal data and other fundamental rights and freedoms is stated and the protection of personal data as a human right is discussed. In addition, information about the legal regulations on the protection of personal data is given and the legal framework is determined. In the second section, the concept of social media and the history of the emergence and development of this phenomenon are emphasized. Information about the privacy policies of some media platforms is given. The necessity of processing personal data and the reasons that create risks in the protection of this data, big data technology and data mining are emphasized. The third chapter is the part where the main problem is explained. The need for the protection of personal data in social media is analyzed in the context of fundamental rights and freedoms and information is given about the measures to be taken to ensure data privacy. Finally, apart from legal regulations, the issue of ethics is discussed with the knowledge of human rights, which has a great function in preventing the violations of rights that have arisen and may arise in this regard, and which should be taken as a basis while raising awareness of the society on the subject.