In today’s world, people tend to run majority of their daily errands through the internet. It is easy, convenient, and it saves a lot of time. In one hour someone can make a deposit in his personal bank account, order a medical prescription, pay bills, apply for a loan, get some shopping, and more. All it takes for a customer to be able to do this is having an account with each of this company’s websites. Creating an account is usually a very simple process where the person provides some information and creates a user name and a password to be able to return to the website. This information provided by the customer is called: digital data or digital information, which is simply any kind of information in digital format. Digital data can be public or private, it can be kept by the government, banks, medical providers, and other institutions; as well as a freely available in the internet in websites like myspace.com, facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
The use of digital data has increased over the years rapidly. Few years ago, the most significant piece of digital data, and sometimes the only one, a person used to have, was his credit report. It was available on the internet to financial institutions, which used it to determine if the individual was credit worthy or not. Today, we are part of a digital society, where digital data is created every day by people, sometimes without even realizing it. Now, our digital profile is not only a bunch of numbers in our credit report, it is a more logistical report, that contains personal information, professional history, previous events in our live, financial situation, etc. And like everything else, it can be used for legal purposes as well as some illegal ones.
Marketing companies are one example of a proper use of it. They acquire and utilize digital data to target specific markets. If for example they need a list of names and addresses of people between 23 and 36 years old, with a large amount of credit; they can obtain it from companies like ChoicePoint, firms dedicated specifically to identify, retrieve, storage, analyze, and deliver the data. (Choice Point, 2002-2008) These companies can provide more than databases, they offer information like background screenings, public records, copies of documents like birth certificates, business credentials, authentication and more. Law enforcement officers, potential employers, financial institutions, and even just regular people use it and find it very helpful.
We now accept the sharing and digital storage of our personal information as a necessary evil. We continue to incorporate, into our lives, technology that uses this data. Microsoft and Google are envisioning and developing ways to commercialize the use of even more of our stored personal information.
The personal connection Americans have with their phones, tablets, and computers; and the rising popularity of online shopping and social websites due to the massive influence the social media has on Americans, it is clear why this generation is called the Information Age, also known as Digital Age. With the Internet being a huge part of our lives, more and more personal data is being made available, because of our ever-increasing dependence and use of the Internet on our phones, tablets, and computers. Some corporations such as Google, Amazon, and Facebook; governments, and other third parties have been tracking our internet use and acquiring data in order to provide personalized services and advertisements for consumers. Many American such as Nicholas Carr who wrote the article “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty, With Real Dangers,” Anil Dagar who wrote the article “Internet, Economy and Privacy,” and Grace Nasri who wrote the article “Why Consumers are Increasingly Willing to Trade Data for Personalization,” believe that the continuing loss of personal privacy may lead us as a society to devalue the concept of privacy and see privacy as outdated and unimportant. Privacy is dead and corporations, governments, and third parties murdered it for their personal gain not for the interest of the public as they claim. There are more disadvantages than advantages on letting corporations, governments, and third parties track and acquire data to personalized services and advertisements for us.
The rapid growth in technology has been impressive over the past 20 years from television graphics and multi-purpose phones to world-wide connections. Unfortunately, the government is having trouble with this growth to protect the people from having their privacy violated due to the information being stored electronically. In “The Anonymity Experiment”, by Catherine Price, states how easily a person can be track and how personal can be lost. Also, in “Social Security and ID theft”, by Felipe Sorrells, states how social security numbers and personal identities can be stolen and how the government is trying to stop that theft. They both intertwine with technology and privacy though Price's article has a broad overview of that, while Sorrells's focus is mainly on social security number and identity thief part. Price and Sorrells shows that companies are taking too much advantage from the customer, the government, even though their trying, needs to start helping the people protect their privacy, and a balance between the amount of trust people should have giving out their sensitive records to which information is protected.
Data can give you quite a bit of information about your customers. By examining it, you will be able to begin to see patterns and learn the habits of your customers. This could mean that you are able to provide the correct number of products at the perfect time instead of having a shortfall or being left with additional stock long after interest has fallen in the product.
Today, many people rely on computers to do homework, work, and create or store useful information. Therefore, it is important for the information on the computer to be stored and kept properly. It is also extremely important for people on computers to protect their computer from data loss, misuse, and abuse. For example, it is crucial for businesses to keep information they have secure so that hackers can't access the information. Home users also need to take means to make sure that their credit card numbers are secure when they are participating in online transactions.
The digital era arrives. Blue Book information editorial board and Social Science Literature Publishing House (2010) pointed out that “China's e-commerce transaction volume reached 3.85 trillion yuan in 2009”. Utilisation of e-business services was also high amongst Hong Kong people. About 98.3% of all persons had used e-business services such as Octopus Card and Automatic Teller Machine (Census and Statistics Department, 2009). One of the pitfalls for the development of e-business, however, is the concerns on consumer privacy. According to Green’s (1999) survey, 54% of respondents had decided not to purchase a product because of a concern on overuse of personal information collected in the e-business transaction. This essay examines the circumstance on protection of consumer privacy in e-business. As e-business is surging by astronomical number and consumer information is a kind of property, the protection of consumer privacy in e-business becomes significant. This essay begins with the causes of the problem, and then move on to analyse the effects. Lastly, the essay concludes with the solutions to the problem.
Data encryption refers to the process of transforming electronic information into a scrambled form that can only be read by someone who knows how to translate the code. In nowadays business world, it’s the easiest and most practical way to secure the information that we stored and processed, and it’s significant for our sensitive information. For example, as electronic commerce is popular now, the vendors and retailers must protect the customers’ personal information from hackers or competitors. They also have many business files or contracts that need to be strictly protected. Without data encryption, these important information may fall into wrong hands and be misused by others. Besides, data encryption may be used to secure sensitive information that exists on company networks, or create digital signatures, and help to authorize in business. No one should underestimate the importance of encryption. A little mistake in encryption may make sensitive information revealing, or even result in illegal and criminal accuse.
Data acquisition is the process of copying data. For computer forensics, it’s the task of collecting digital evidence from electronic media. There are two types of data acquisition: static acquisitions and live acquisitions.
As we evolve in the information age, online privacy rights have grown over the past years. In 1986, a federal law was passed to protect an individual’s electronical information. “This law was produced to make a fair balance among the privacy expectations of citizens and the legitimate needs of law enforcement” (EPIC). With the Internet developing intensely, there is a great deal at stake such as the theft of your identification. But where it all begins is when you access the Internet. This is the first step in being aware of your privacy because you go through the process in signing up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). With this process you have a IP address attached to your ISP. This is the primary step on how your information starts
Personal data is quickly becoming a commodity in today's high technology world. This information is used by banks, investment and brokerage companies, credit card merchants, government agencies (local, state and federal), and consumer product-based companies. Most people probably don't realize the amount of information that's shared between companies, or how often it's done. Many companies sell and share customer data to help sell products and find out what new products they should produce. Other uses include gathering information about inventory levels to help better determine what types of products are bought at which store, when and how often. This can be used for inventory and production, to make sure that the store (or stores for chains, like Safeway and Long's Drugs) can have the products available when they're needed.
As can be seen, from the information presented, the need for laws and restrictions concerning internet data collection is greatly needed. Moreover, the government can search private citizens data without warrant or cause. Also, companies are not only collecting internet user data but also selling it. The companies and agencies who commit such crimes should be fined or either closed down. In closing, the privacy and security of individuals on the internet should be upheld by the United States government.
In recent times we might consider that the right for privacy in one of our major achievements in our society. Unfortunately the same does not apply for the Internet. The Internet once considered a place for free information exchange and sharing, has the potential has becoming the biggest threat to its users. The commercialization of the Internet is one of the major reasons why the chances of a compromise of our privacy have increased. Customer profiling, address trading or simple lack of care with sensitive customer information are just some of the threats that this commercialization has bought to our ‘free’ Internet. Another reason being that with the increase of threats there is a regular change in technology to counter these threats. These changes make it harder for the already overstrained users to cope with the ever changing technology.
These databases allowed companies to better understand what customers were buying regularly, what they spent and what they did. (Ruchi, 2014) The earliest definition of this was "Database Marketing is an interactive approach to marketing, which uses the individually addressable marketing media and channels (such as mail, telephone and the sales force): to extend help to a company 's target audience; to stimulate their demand; and to stay close to them by recording and keeping an electronic database memory of the customer, prospect and all commercial contacts, to help improve all future contacts and to ensure more realistic of all marketing."
Privacy exist wherever personal information or other sensitive information is collected, stored, used, and finally destroyed or deleted – in digital form or otherwise. The challenge of data privacy is to use data while safe-guarding individual's privacy preferences and their personally identifiable information. The fields of computer security, data security, and information security design and utilize software, hardware, and human resources to address this issue.
When it comes to individuals, the transition to electronic media has had a enormous effect. Individuals used to be passive observers when it came to print unless they were themselves authors. Now with the advent of Facebook and other social media sites, individuals are not the content creators. People can share all types of information with almost anyone via the internet and increased connectivity. Individuals were able to come together via social media, the internet, and smart-phones to mobilize the “Occupy Wall Street” movement and even more recently the “99%” movement as well, as like minded individuals sought each other out in order to stand against economic disparity. With the transition from print to digital media also came the mass collection of personal data. Individuals are sharing more and more information not only with each other but also financial institutions and retail outlets. This information can and will be shared by those entities in order sell people on items and services they may be interested in, or have been interested in in the past. This has brought up concerns with cyber-security and an individuals rights to