Due to the increasing popularity of social networking sites, such as FacebookTM, TwitterTM and MySpaceTM, Internet users are happily spreading their personal information while ignoring the threat disclosure of their private lives. According to statistics presented by FacebookTM (2013), there were approximately 699 million daily active users as of June 2013, indicating that approximately one-tenth of the world's population actively uses FacebookTM. Nevertheless, it is widely recognized that this rapid growth in the popularity of social networks would contribute to various privacy issues. Therefore, in this essay, privacy issues related to communication and disclosure of personal information through social networking sites would be deliberated and feasible preventive measures that could be undertaken to enhance online security and privacy of customers of social networking sites would be introduced. Boyd and Ellison (2007) defined social networking sites as: "web services that allow individuals to construct a public or semi-public profile within a bounded system, to articulate a list of other users with which they share a connection, and view and browse their list. connections and those made by others within the system. (p. 211) In other words, on social networking sites, people are able to initiate a relationship, often between strangers, through social networking sites, as well as communicate with each other and acquire the personal information of others effortlessly. This means that offenders could gather valuable information relating to their victims and approach their target to take advantage of it. Due to this phenomenon, several privacy issues are raised following leaks of personal information that end...... middle of paper ......final level: What is Cyberbullying? Retrieved from http://www.cvcerie.org/additional-resources/cyberstalking/Hayes, N. (August 1, 2013), Five Common Legal & Regulatory Challenges with Social Media, Forrester Research. Retrieved from http://blogs.csoonline.com/social-networking-security/2726/five-common-legal-regulatory-challenges-social-mediaHobson, D. (2008). Social media – not always user-friendly, Computer Fraud & Security, Computer Fraud & Security, 2008(2), 20.Identity Theft Resource Center (nd). Identity Theft Resource Center, non-profit organization. Retrieved from http://www.idtheftcenter.org/id-theft/id-theft-resource-center.htmlMarie, NL, (September 25, 2009). Email hackers steal law student's identity in Facebook 'e-whoring' scam. Metro. Retrieved from http://metro.co.uk/2013/09/25/email-hackers-steal-law-students-identity-in-e-whoring-scam-4111921/