If you have ever used the internet than you probably know that almost every website today asks for some type of your personal information. Today, identity theft is becoming more and more common. Websites used to promise more security for consumers, and today websites are no longer offering the same protection. With more and more people shopping online, criminals are gaining access to innocent shoppers’ identities easier than ever. Companies are using consumer information to help target the individual for sales of things they like. Many people are worried that these companies have gone too far and that the information is an invasion of privacy.
II. Analysis
Our class is centered on learning about the computer and how to use it. In class we learn how computers and technology can be very helpful. We should discuss some of the negative things that can come from using this technology, and I believe that is why this article relates directly to our class. The internet is not as safe as it once was. Before, websites would promise not to release consumers’ information, but today the very same websites are no longer making these promises. I believe this article relates to class because we have all been subjected to release some personal information to a website. Everyone should be aware that when we fill out the questions of our name and age that our information is being released to different companies, and people, all over the world.
The problem is not that other companies possess our names and age, but with some of these companies, they sometimes release our addresses and credit information. So what those other companies can send you things based on previous purchases? The problem is not with other companies, but when your i...
... middle of paper ...
...ese companies crossing the line? I believe that these companies cross the line every time they release our personal information to anyone or any other company. It is not only an invasion of privacy on their part to know everything about us, but it is morally wrong for these companies that we trust to release our information sometimes without our consent or knowledge. If we want our information put out for everyone to know, than we would put it out there. I believe that if companies want to use our information than we should be asked or have to sign our consent. Many activists are arguing to make the internet safer, and many lawsuits are being filed against companies who release information. While there has been a big push towards internet safety, there is no full proof method, and no one is safe.
Works Cited
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3078835/#.UtLafLT8kuI
..., websites and online marketers do find ways around users’ precautions to gain personal information. There are many people out there who want to use personal information like credit card numbers or addresses to cause harm to others. These cases are the extremely negative ones that people want to and should avoid. The case of companies and third parties tracking browsing history and other information for advertising purposes hover over a finer line between good and bad. For some people, tracking can be considered convenient in terms of shopping for what they are interested in, and others may be uncomfortable with the thought of being tracked without knowing. As stated in the beginning, complete privacy is unlikely, but being informed about the tactics of the Internet can help one protect themselves and others in their care to be as careful and private as possible.
Identity theft is a term used for describing criminal that uses individual’s identity without consent. A common crime of identity theft would be identity fraud. Many of the crimes are regularly connected with money-related issues (Reyns, 2013). With technology being commonly used nowadays we are getting more dependent on it for business, financial, medical, and other forms. As a result this became a target for identity thieves as well. The Internet provides us information and accessibility, but information being stored on the Internet eas...
“Human beings are not meant to lose their anonymity and privacy,” Sarah Chalke said. When using the web, web users’ information tends to be easily accessible to government officials or hackers. In Nicholas Carr’s “Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty,” Jim Harpers’ “Web Users Get As Much As They Give,” and Lori Andrews “Facebook is Using You” the topic of internet tracking stirred up many mixed views; however, some form of compromise can be reached on this issue, laws that require companies to inform the public on what personal information is being taken, creating advice on social media about how web users can be more cautious about what kind of information they give out online, enabling your privacy settings and programs, eliminating weblining, and also by attacking this problem by offering classes for the youth on the internet. Weblining tracks a web user’s information when using the internet, the information that is taken is then used to try to sell items to the user. Carr informs readers on how weblining works: “Already, advertisers are able to infer extremely personal details about people by monitoring their web-browsing habits.
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 Internet offers many benefits but it also creates many threats that undermines our personal privacy. Concerns about loss of privacy are not new. But the computer's ability to gather and sort vast amounts of data and the Internet's ability to distribute it globally magnify those concerns [1]. Privacy concerns on the Internet are centered on improper acquisition, improper use of personal information such as intrusions, manipulation, discrimination, identity theft, and stalking of personal information. Today the Internet stretches our geographic boundaries and force us to deal with global ethic based on moral principles held to be valid across the cultures. Due to the nature of the Internet, our personal information may be transmitted over the internet and that the transfer of personal information may be made to any country in the world, regardless of the extent of any data protection laws and regulations in any of those countries.
You come home and find two mysterious UPS packages at your doorstep. Funny; they're addressed to you, but you didn't order anything. You open one of them to find a cell phone with the latest accessories. The enclosed invoice shows that it was shipped to you but billed to someone with your name at another address a few miles away. Same name? Same city? Stranger things can happen. There's a phone number, so your husband tries to call to let your namesake know that UPS delivered her packages to the wrong address. When you hear the woman on the line say, "Yes, this is [insert your full name here]," you get a sinking feeling in your stomach. Your husband quickly hangs up on her. Another review of the invoice reveals payment was made by MasterCard. You have a MasterCard but haven't used it in a while, so--what the hell--you call the toll-free customer service line. After being transferred here and there, answering this question and that one, it hits you: you're just another victim.
Identity theft is one of the fastest-growing crimes in both the US and abroad. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) estimates that identity theft costs consumers as much as $50 billion annually and that this number will likely keep growing (Finklea, 2010, p. 1). Additionally, the FTC receives in excess 250,000 consumer complaints of identity theft each year and this is believed to be only a fraction of the total number of victims (Finklea, 2010, p. 9). There are several types and methods of identity theft and these methods continue to increase as technology becomes increasingly sophisticated. Understanding the types and methods of identity theft can reduce potential victimization.
As technology as advanced, so has our society. We are able to accomplish many tasks much easier, faster, and in effective ways. However, if looked at the harmful impact it has had on the society, one can realize that these are severe and really negative. One of the main concerns is privacy rights. Many people want that their information and personal data be kept in secrecy, however with today’s technology, privacy is almost impossible. No matter how hard one tries, information being leaked through technological advancements have become more and more common. With personal information being leaked, one does not know exactly how the information will be used, which validates the statement that privacy rights have been diminishing and should be brought to concern. Many people do not realize that their information is being used by third-parties and to consumer companies. In conclusion, technology has had a significant effect on privacy
The 90's internet boom gave rise to new ways of writing in through access to cyberspace. What used to be printed or handwritten on physical surfaces such as paper, cardboard, or bulletin boards has changed to 0's and 1's, bits and bytes of digitized information that can be displayed thru the projections of computer screens. Moreover, the internet has made the process of publishing one's works, writing letters, or chatting with one another much easier and convenient for everyone around the globe. The internet became a universal tool, giving much freedom and flexibility to the users; it gave them opportunity to deliver their thoughts with little or no restrictions. Since it's impossible to regulate all cyber-activities, internet users are often unrestricted by the normal laws or authorities that would set boundaries around the various online transactions. More importantly, the fact that a net user can take on different identities in cyberspace brings about several ethical and social issues. These anonymous and unrestrictive characteristics of cyberspace often permite abusive users to easily involve themselves in serious cybercrimes such as cyberstalking, cyber-rape, and cyber-harassment through chatting services, emails, cyber communities, and other online communication.
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
Have you ever received a credit card bill at the end of the month with a ridiculous amount of money needed to be paid that you never spent? This is because of identity theft. The FTC estimates that each year, over 9 million people are affected by identity theft. According to Sally Driscoll, this is because almost anyone with a computer and a slight bit of computer knowledge can pull off identity theft. Experts also claim that identity theft is the fastest-growing crime in the world. Identity theft is a global problem that cannot be stopped without effective measures. The problem is, effective measures are very hard to come by when dealing with identity theft because almost any security protocol can be by-passed.
However, the same personal data is being compromised and eroding privacy. Companies have been getting bolder in their attempts to gather, share and sell data. The latest trend is outsourcing data to third party companies for data processing, which can be done at a lower cost. One of the main problems with this approach is that a lot of very sensitive data is being sent, which could be harmful in the wrong hands. Most companies require their customers to "opt-out" to prevent their data from being shared with a company's affiliates. This process requires the customer to explicitly tell the company not to share their data, which is usually in the form of a web site or a survey sent in the mail. These surveys are often thrown away by consumers, so they don't even realize that they're giving the companies a green light to sell and share their data.
In the early years of computers and computerized technology, computer engineers had to believe that their contribution to the development of computer technology would produce positive impacts on the people that would use it. During the infancy of computer technology, ethical issues concerning computer technology were almost nonexistent because computers back then were not as multifaceted as they are today. However, ethical issues relating to computer technology and cyber technology is undeniable in today’s society. Computer technology plays a crucial role in all aspects of our daily lives. Different forms of computer technology provide unique functionalities that allow people to perform daily activities effectively and efficiently. In modern society, we use computer and cyber technology to communicate with friends and family via social networking sites, participate in business transactions, and get current news. Different tasks require unique technological feature in computer technology to function properly. Although, unique technological features increase people’s proficiency in accomplishing various tasks, unique technological features in computer and cyber technology increase security vulnerabilities. In many cases, the security vulnerabilities in computer technology are exploited by cybercriminals to invade people’s privacy, and steal people’s identity. We know that computers have no moral compass; they cannot make moral decisions for themselves. Essentially, people make moral decisions that affect others positively or negatively depending on how they use computer technology. Some of the biggest ethical issues facing people in the computing environment include privacy concerns on the web and identity theft. Privacy concerns...
In this new era of the Internet, most people use the Internet to acquire information of one kind or other. But what these people are not aware of is that the Internet is collecting information about them. Every time we get onto the Internet there might be a compromise of privacy of our personal information. The information flows both ways. With every clock of the mouse on a hyperlink, or an addition to the mailing list, someone out there might be gathering information about us. This raises the seriousness of privacy of our information on the Internet.
The Internet is a connection of computers across the world through a network. Its origin dates back to the 1960s when the U.S Military used it for research, but it became more available to the public from the late 1980s. The World Wide Web was created in 1989 and browsers began appearing in the early 1990s. Over the last 24 years, the Internet has enabled people to shop, play, do research, communicate and conduct business online. It has also become cheaper and faster in performing different tasks. As much as the Internet has done immeasurable good to society, it has also dominated people’s lives and brought with it an array of cybercrimes. According to Nicholas Carr in his book The Shallows: How the Internet is Changing the Way we Think, Read and Remember (Carr, 2010). He debates on whether the Internet has done more harm than good. People use the Internet daily to exchange accurate information and constantly personal data such as credit cards, passwords and Social Security numbers are travelling through the network from one computer to another. With security measures put in place on the Internet, personal information remains confidential. But unfortunately, criminals have adapted to innovations in technology, and today, more people are increasingly becoming victims of cybercrime. The Internet has had profound effects on the public, both positive and negative. In this paper we will examine how access to personal information has led to an increase in online and offline crimes. The essay will particularly focus on ecommerce and hacking.