Privacy has become a major concern on the Internet. Why Internet privacy is so hot recently when it has been there for a long time? Because anything that happens online seems much more exciting than things going on in the "real" world. In addition, recently the Wiki leak and Facebook privacy issue bring Internet privacy back to people’s concern.
Several activities on the Internet will reveal your personal information, like signing up for Internet service, E-mail, using social network, browsing website, and managing our financial accounts and online bill payments. People know there is possibility that their personal information will be released. However, they do not really know and understand how organizations collect and use personal information on the Internet. Many Web sites require visitors to identify themselves and provide information about their wants and needs. Some Web sites track visitors’ "footsteps" through the site by storing a cookie, or identifying string of text, on their computers. Each organization has different ways to collect and use people’s personal information on the Internet. However, there are only limited regulations that really protect consumers’ Internet privacy.
Privacy & Data-Mining on the Internet , EU’s Data Privacy Directive and International Relations, and United States Internet Privacy Law are main regulations addressing Internet privacy issue. Recently, In mid-May, Vice President Al Gore announced a White House initiative aimed at helping to improve online privacy protections. Federal Trade Commission (FTC) released a report in June addressing Internet privacy. The report is the results of its March privacy "sweep," in which the agency visited more than 1,400 commercial Web sites in search of clearly displayed privacy policies. The FTC reported that while 85% of the sites it had visited collect personal information from consumers, only 14% had posted any privacy-related notices, and only 2% had posted comprehensive privacy policies. Meanwhile, E.U. says it will overhaul privacy regulations.
How these actions will actually protect Internet users’privacy? We don’t know. Even though government is taking their initiatives, but with today’s technology, we never know what will happen. I believe what Internet users’ can do is being sensitive about releasing their personal information. According to an article, there are six tips people can do to protect privacy.
Privacy is becoming one of the major issue of internet, I agree with you Quin and as I posted in my blog (http://marketingsquare2011.blogspot.com) something could change in the next future referring to the internet security and data control in US thanks to two acts, the Combating Online Infringement and Counterfeits Act (COICA) and the Protecting Syberspace as a National Assect Act, have been recently introduced in Senate that would require domain registrars, Internet Service Providers and others to block access (or the total access to internet as in the case of the second act) to the web sites that the US contends contribute to vary infringements. This process is already realty in England and soon it will be in Australia. But those acts will be approved at the end by the Senate? And, are those two acts the answer of the online privacy problem? This subject is really trick and I my opinion we are going to heard talk about privacy online still for a long time. Who really believe that a company has the final interest to change the situation; could it lose customers doesn’t protect their data? I don’t think so. And, the governments are really interested about the problem or is just an outward interest? I have no answer now, do you?
ReplyDeleteLorenzo
Quin you give great advice by making the point that we have to protect ourselves. We can’t continue to procrastinate all of our responsibilities when navigating the web. It is our duty to protect ourselves and our family. This is an old concept, for example, when we go to some parts of our city, we tend to be more careful, double check our surroundings, and sometimes even we avoid some dangerous areas. Definitely we don’t go walking all around with all of our pictures, information, credit cards and others while sending invitations to people we don’t know! So why we do this in the internet?
ReplyDeleteMaybe we should start taking care of ourselves and stop waiting for the huge burocracy that could create some legislation that in my opinion, it won’t really help a lot.
I agree that we need to be cautious when browsing on the web. There are millions of ways in which one can lose sensitive information if the inputs are not properly managed. Every user should maintain personal data protected from public knowledge. One recommendation is to perform personal transactions only on our personal computer, never use a public computer to access to personal accounts, manage bank accounts, or provide social security numbers or other personal data. It is clear that current legislation cannot control all what happens on the web.
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