Abstract

The existence of social media platforms in modern-day society, though very helpful, has brought about significant data privacy concerns. The operation of many social media platforms is dependent on a practice of collecting and processing the personal and sensitive data of users of the social media platforms. This has introduced an erroneous culture of the infringement of data privacy rights of social media platform users by way of data breaches. The doctrinal research design employed in this study is the doctrinal design, which is a desk-based approach that focuses on the analysis of the existing legal text, instead of its application. The study revealed that there are challenges faced by individuals whose data has been breached by social media platforms and are seeking legal redress. Furthermore, the study accentuates certain challenges that are procedural in nature and how detrimental they can be to a data breach suit. This study concluded that data privacy is a fundamental phenomenon, the absence of which leads to numerous data breaches, with the resultant consequences posing a threat to justice. The study recommended the need for an international or global legal framework aimed at providing a standard practice and approach in data privacy activities.

Keywords: Breach of Data, Data Privacy, Justice, Law and Technology, Social Media Platforms.