The Importance Of Internet Privacy

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Internet privacy has been a major issue for its users in the last decade. It is bigger than ever before, as more people join social media cites such as Facebook, Twitter, and Instagram. These companies, keeping track of our personal data, have a responsibility to make sure our information remains private. Precautions Internet users take to protect their information from being used wrongfully, the government’s connection to this issue, and how the future generation responds to these practices. Consumers’ privacy refers to ability to control when, how, and to what extent the personal information is to be transmitted to others.
Customers' personal data is a treasure for companies looking to discover consumers' online habits and a moneymaker if they sell that information to third parties. There is a giant gap between the type of tracking that companies do on the web and what people know or think is happening. Through a conducted by researchers ”found that information transfer, notice/awareness, and information storage were the top online privacy concerns of Internet users” (Anton) The general public has very little idea that every second they surf on the Internet, their actions are being tracked and used to create a "profile" which is then sold to companies on markets. Online tracking is not the same as it used to be with the traditional cookies, it now involves new tools that gather very sensitive information about the person. These new tools include flash cookies and beacons. Flash cookies can be used to re-install cookies when the user has deleted them, and beacons can track everything a user does on a web page including what the user types and he moves the mouse. However, there are solutions to preserve privacy in the web;” tech...

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...s 7 and 8(10-12 years old) showed an adult level of understanding regarding negative consequences of Internet use compared to other age groups.” This indicates that this age group has the ability to understand the negative consequences caused by privacy loss and manage to avoid them. Young adolescents are making a transition from being protected by COPPA to teens without protection; it would a good time to encourage them to adopt safe Internet usage practices.
With this said citizens ought to wake up and do something to protect their privacy. Now that the government is involved in this situation looking over what Internet users are doing, companies making money by secretly selling consumers’ information to third parties and e-marketers skillfully obtaining information from kids. People should stand up for their right to privacy and hopefully make effective changes.

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