ETHICAL ISSUES INVOLVED IN THE USE OF SOCIAL MEDIA IN E-COMMERCE AND HOW TO ADDRESS Security Concerns and Identity Theft The popularity and reputation of social networking sites has been mounting at astounding levels (Dinerman, 2011). As a result of the high capacity of personal information that is normally displayed on social media, one is able to make additional estimations regarding a user, for instance, the individual’s social security number, which can be utilized as an element of identity theft (Gross & Acquisti, 2005). In some social sites, such as Facebook, a number of groups have recommended that users avoid displaying their birthdays, or hide them from their Facebook ‘friends’ that are not personally known. According to MSNBC (2011), there are some cases where a number of users have had their photographs stolen from these sites, with the intention of aiding in identity theft. Nevertheless, little evidence is available that shows that a good number social networking sites’ users are taking any full actions to shield themselves from this kind of theft. As a result, there has been development of procedures and policies to protect consumers from identify theft by using PIN numbers, firewalls and encryption systems.