The Importance Of Internet Privacy

876 Words2 Pages
bulb-icon

Recommended: Internet security importance

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...

... middle of paper ...

...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.

Show More
Related

  • Online Privacy: Is It Really Possible?

    1848 Words  | 4 Pages

    In the Engineering and Technology Journal, two engineers, Gareth Mitchell and Guy Clapperton, gave their thoughts on both sides of the privacy issue. Is gathering information violating personal privacy? They made their arguments using currency as a metaphor for personal information and online services a product. Mitchell argues the case that giving out personal information is “too high a price to pay” (Mitchell, 2013, p. 26). He says that despite the option to opt out of cookies and certain information, many sites are more covert and make their opt out option less accessible than a pop up asking to opt out. The site makes it hard for the Internet user to say no to being tracked. Mitchell warns the reader to take more consideration into what information they are giving away and that “privacy is not to be taken for granted” (Mitchell, 2013, p. 26). Getting information from the Internet would mean tra...

    Read More

  • Online Data Tracking: An Invasion of Privacy?

    1364 Words  | 3 Pages

    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.

    Read More

  • Internet and the Invasion of Privacy

    1232 Words  | 3 Pages

    Privacy has always been an important value to Americans. The founding fathers valued it, and placed explicit protection of certain aspects of it in the Bill of Rights. But with the invasion of the internet, keeping privacy has become difficult, if not impossible. You have cookies collecting and storing data about you whenever you visit a site. You have browsers tracking the pages you visit. You have Google "scanning" your emails. You have "widgets" on sites that can see what sites you are visiting. The possibilities are endless for spying. There are ways to prevent this, such as deleting cookies and using anonymous browsers, although they are often difficult, and not foolproof. Thinking of the internet as a private venture is dangerous because online companies store, and can share, sensitive information about you; hackers and others, if they have the knowledge, can steal this personal information stored online; and if you think the internet is private, you are more likely to share personal information that you would rather others not knowing.

    Read More

  • Privacy Theft: Internet Companies Stealing Users’ Information

    1735 Words  | 4 Pages

    The Internet is being used by almost all the people on Earth, 7.1 Billion, (Wikipedia) and gains new users every hour. The users of the internet visit Google and Facebook the most and they share all sorts of information with these companies, such as their name, birthday, address and even banking information! Unfortunately for these users, these companies are not protecting their content and information. They use their information to sell ads, make profit, and even present the users’ content free of charge! These hideously terrible problems that are mainly caused by Google and Facebook are caused for the relentlessly obvious reason that many users refuse to read the privacy terms of such companies, regarding their importance.

    Read More

  • Social Media Privacy Case Study

    1121 Words  | 3 Pages

    Ever since the founding of the internet, privacy has been a growing concern. The internet has been a place where information about anything and everything is readily accessible at the touch of our fingertips, and just as easily personal information about people can be found. With the amount of social media and how it interacts with people 's lives, it can be said that privacy is a depleting resource. Privacy is a "fixture in public discourse", with the most enduring issues in this sphere being related to informational technologies such as the world wide web. (Nissenbaum 2004, p. 119) This essay will disagree with Mark Zuckerberg 's statement, claiming that privacy is still a social norm, and disagree with the the notion that attitudes to

    Read More

  • Internet Privacy: Edward Snowden

    1686 Words  | 4 Pages

    The government gives each American citizen a set of unalienable rights that protect them from the government’s power. These rights cannot be broken, yet the government violates the Fourth Amendment daily to find ways to spy on the American public under the guise of protecting against terrorism. In 2007 President Obama said the American administration “acts like violating civil liberties is the way to enhance our securities – it is not.” Americans need to understand that their privacy is worth the fight. The people need to tell their neighbors, their congressmen, and their senators that they will not allow their internet privacy to be violated by needless spying. American citizens deserve the rights given to them and need to fight for the right to keep them by changing privacy laws to include Internet privacy.

    Read More

  • Summary Of I Saw What You Did By Sheri Andrews

    2230 Words  | 5 Pages

    Lori Andrews, the author of “I Know Who You are and I Saw What You Did: Social Networks and the Death of Privacy” is a law professor at the Illinois Institute of Technology and an advocate for online privacy. This literary work goes in depth about the need for a Social Network Constitution to help law abiding private users like you and I actually have the privacy and security we think we already have in the vast, scary, and ultra-complex cyber world. Ms. Andrews throughout her book provides thorough evidence and information about people being fired, data collectors mining through user’s data, and other horrific stories of people being abused because of their “supposed” online activities. Her work and career has been so thorough that she is a common guest on astute shows such as 60 Minutes, and Oprah. In this response, I will elaborate more on her research and her particular findings; in addition, I will provide some examples of why I also believe there must be a Social Network Constitution as a result of the of the horrific and unnecessary accounts given by the witnesses who bravely provided this information for her and her research team. Privacy is an intrinsic part of the makeup of our proud Nation, and we as law abiding citizens must do all we can to preserve this freedom and fight even harder, because right now, Social Networks and advertising companies are stripping each computer user of this sacred privilege.

    Read More

  • Invasion of Personal Privacy

    1103 Words  | 3 Pages

    Technology and the internet are fluid, constantly changing shapes and sizes as time goes on. Comparatively, society has come a very long way with both. Technology and the internet have helped to connect people both near and far, find cures for diseases, have aided in new ways to educate, been a form of entertainment to all that have the leisure of using it, and have both provided an unimaginable amount of jobs. Technology and the internet have helped to mold society into what it is today. Take a look around, it’s everywhere and its users are avid. Technology and the internet play a huge role in the everyday lives of so many. As with all good things, there are also cons. While many people enjoy the everyday use of their technologies with things like cameras, social media, text messaging, and online shopping, they also put themselves at an elevated risk to be invaded. Privacy is a right that everyone has to their personal information. It is vital to protect personal information, especially with so many invasions through technology and the internet, and with this vitality, many steps are being taken to help guard this private information.

    Read More

  • Should Government Regulate Internet Essay

    496 Words  | 1 Pages

    In spite of being the home of the free, America’s government has become overly observant of the people. The internet has been an unregulated possession of the Americans since 1965, but in 2015 things could possibly change. As Americans lose privacy day by day the internet should stay free of government regulation. If the government regulates the internet it will oppress freedom of speech, deprive Americans of useful information, and the exhaustion of tax payers’ money.

    Read More

  • The Pros And Cons Of Privacy Online

    1333 Words  | 3 Pages

    Privacy is used to remain anonymity while online. While browsing online, there are lots of things that your personal information can be exposed to in the online world and there are lots of different ways to prevent this from happening. I will be discussing if it is truly possible to remain private online while using the internet effectively. Certain methods of remaining anonymous online will have different difficulties in order to follow them, I will take this into account when I am analysing my findings as not everyone who wishes to remain private online is going to be computer literate. I will also take into account that the internet is accessed through a range of devices (mobiles, tablets, and desktop PCs) so I will focus on remaining private

    Read More

  • Surveillance and Privacy Issues

    1006 Words  | 3 Pages

    Perhaps the founder of Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg, said it best when he claimed that privacy is no longer a “social norm.” Virtually everyone has a smart phone and everyone has social media. We continue to disclose private information willingly and the private information we’re not disclosing willingly is being extracted from our accounts anyway. Technology certainly makes these things possible. However, there is an urgent need to make laws and regulations to protect against the stuff we’re not personally disclosing. It’s unsettling to think we are living in 1984 in the 21st century.

    Read More

  • Paraphrasing And Privacy

    2231 Words  | 5 Pages

    User Privacy is a sensitive topic at the moment. It is one of the most important factors a person should consider before they give their information away over the internet. Every click or selection you make online is being stored and permanently kept on record that includes anything you may have Googled, investigated or researched. Some people believe that user privacy is dead (Rambam 2011). More and more we are being encouraged to give away more information about ourselves online, and the greatest intrusion into our online activities comes from social networking sites. The lack of user privacy on social networking sites has led to dramatic changes in people’s lives such as targeting by the media and marketing researchers, the buying and selling of user information and other unethical forms of privacy invasion. Online activity is increasingly being used as e...

    Read More

  • Lack of Internet Security and Privacy

    909 Words  | 2 Pages

    Internet privacy and security has become the concern of many individuals throughout recent years. There are a very limited amount of laws that have been enacted to combat computer or cyber related crimes. This has become an issue because as the internet grows increasingly popular so does the criminal and immoral behavior that abounds on it. With these crimes gaining in impact, effectiveness, and frequency, there needs to be more repercussions for these crimes. The United States government needs to increase restrictions on the amount and type of data on individuals from the internet, to prevent the government from invading privacy of citizens and to prevent companies from storing browser histories of individuals, to then sell that information to ad agencies and other companies.

    Read More

  • Essay on Internet Privacy - Invasion of Privacy on the Internet

    966 Words  | 2 Pages

    Invasion of privacy is a serious issue concerning the Internet, as e-mails can be read if not encrypted, and cookies can track a user and store personal information. Lack of privacy policies and employee monitoring threatens security also. Individuals should have the right to protect themselves as much as possible from privacy invasion and shouldn't have to give in to lowered standards of safety being pursued by the government.

    Read More

  • 21st Century Privacy

    1359 Words  | 3 Pages

    Recent leaks regarding the National Security Agency’s monitoring of America’s communications, indeed, the communication of World leaders has brought the use of technology to the forefront in the mind of many people. This, then, begs the question, is privacy any longer possible in America? In this paper, I will argue by using scholarly and peer-reviewed resources that privacy is possible in the 21st century in America in online environments, because the technology exists through which privacy can be assured. I will present the reader with valid objections to this view, but will disprove them, using research that is current in the field of technology.

    Read More

More about The Importance Of Internet Privacy

Open Document