Internet Privacy in the Modern World

Ever feel like you are being watched? How about having the feeling like some one is following you home from school? Well that is what it will be like if users do not have the privacy on the Internet they deserve. EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), a advocacy group that has been fighting the Clinton Administration for tougher online consumer protection laws, and other privacy protection agencies have formed to protect the rights and privileges of the Internet user. With the U.S. Government, EPIC has had to step in and help small companies and Internet users with their own privacy problems, hackers getting into their systems and ruining the networks, and crackers stealing and decrypting private

Sergey Brin noted, “Some say Google is God. Others say Google is Satan. But if they think Google is too powerful, remember that with search engines, unlike other companies, all it takes is a single click to go to another search engine.” Nicholas Carr’s essay challenges this assertion. Nicholas Carr believes even though there are multiple search engines, “the faster we surf across the Web-the more links we click and pages we view-the more opportunities Google and other companies gain to collect information about us and to feed us advertisements.” This topic elicits such strong responses because technology is a part of our everyday lives. Technology is only becoming more advanced and will continue to be a source of debate for all who use it.

Perhaps most importantly, the Internet offers a new way of doing business. A virtual market-place where customers can, at the push of a button, select goods, place an order and pay using a secure electronic transaction.

In more recent years, the issue around Internet privacy is something that has been brought to everyone 's attention. In today 's society everything is based around social media and online shopping. By doing this people are making their information easily accessible for people to use. People document their whole lives on social media making it much easier for people to find information, that some may consider private, about them. When people post a picture with a location attached to it they think it 's harmless but there is a lack of privacy that is allowing people to get hold of information they don 't want out there. It has become much easier for people to get information due to the new technological advances that have been made in the recent years. Companies try to advertise to their customers through the Internet. They do this by personalizing their webpage to what they search, which violates privacy because they are tracking what customers search through cookies and data. Something as harmless as searching for baby clothes for your niece or nephew can turn in to your information being thrown out there and having these companies trying to reach you. Violation of privacy on the Internet is something we should accept because no matter what we try to do to keep our privacy people will always find a way around it. Stealing credit card information is as easy as bumping into someone. There are multiple ways people can defeat personal privacy and it is done through the use of

When the book 1984, by George Orwell, was first published, people thought very little of the world that had been created within the book. In this world, society was run by the Inner Party, whose "leader" is Big Brother. Big Brother is the embodiment of the Party; he is the one who controls everything. He controls food ration, living arrangements, work positions, privacy, and even a person's mind. Privacy did not exist. In modern times, many aspects of the anti-utopian novel are beginning to appear in society. One of the major factors that are becoming more and more like Big Brother is the Internet. More specifically, Google, a very popular search engine, has been ridiculed and attacked for certain policies it has and does not have that resemble Big Brother's antics. Google is under suspicion as being the next Big Brother by many parties, including an organization under Privacy International called Google Watch, because of their disregard of privacy, specifically, accessing its users' hard disk information off their computer (Brandt).

A single click on the mouse can cause your privacy and identity to be leaked. In the article, “Your Browser Is Selling You Out,” the unknown author(s) states that popular programs are using Net transmissions, website advertisements are using cookies to collect personal information and browsers are also using cookies to collect information (“Your Browser Is Selling You Out”). In the magazine article, “How Private Is Your Private Life?” the author, Andrea Rock, shows that her privacy is getting documented every time she is near or using an electronic device (Rock 683-687). People’s personal privacy is being collected, stored, bought or sold everyday. The government needs to figure out a way to tighten the limits on privacy being shared and stored. Information on someone’s privacy is being taken with every click, privacy is being taken when downloading and installing programs, and personal information is even being collected while completing everyday activities such as using a credit card or an E-ZPass.

This is the search box that is displayed in Google or Firefox when we wish to look up information about a particular topic of interest. Whenever we type a word or a topic of interest into the search box section indicated by the word “Search”, we transmit information about ourselves and our interest at the execution of that search. Advertisers see that search engine box request and gather information about our interest in an effort to contact us relating to that topic of interest. As a result of the search, they then solicit us to provide their services (Poritz, 2007). Information is being transmitted every time we type our subject of interest in the search engine box. The search engine creates a log file of our interest and advertisers obtain information about us from that particular search engine provider. It is not likely that the gathering of PII will cease in the near future. Search engines will continue to log and create files for usage by companies relating to our interest. Knowledge of how PII is transmitted and what we can do to minimize our contribution when surfing the web, will assure that information about us is distributed in a matter that is acceptable (Poritz, 2007). In general, items such as social security numbers, driver license numbers, birth records, race, and sex are all considered sensitive PII (Homeland Security, 2011).

Although we have access to the world-wide web, people logging online place their private information at risk. A TED Talk video called “Tracking our Online Trackers” gives a presentation by Gary Kovacs about online privacy. Through installing a Firefox add-on called Collusion, Kovacs experiments with it to view who is watching him online. In a matter of a 24-hour day and visiting a few sites, an exponential growth of unknown sites with unauthorized permission was watching him. A conversational topic today is whether it’s time for society to start tracking their internet trackers. Kovacs says commercial tracking is a danger to our privacy and abuses personal data to help their websites stay in business.

The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.

Google is the most popular search engine that the world uses on an everyday basis. Sergey Brin and Larry Page created Google in 1998. What started out to be a small search engine and ranking system are now the worlds most profitable Internet companies of our time. Google has created many products today that have changed the world of technology, products such as Google+, YouTube, Android, Motorola Mobility, the Nexus 7 tablet computer, Google Wallet, and Google Glass (p.470). Google is qualified as one of the best companies to work for (p.464.) The issue we are facing today is the privacy policy

Internet privacy is the security of a user’s personal data that is stored or published on the internet. The internet is an important part of every individual’s daily life. In today’s society, the internet is used by many different people for many reasons. It can be used for research, communication, and purchasing items. Without the internet, many things that are completed during the course of a day would be impossible or take time to complete. As people use the internet, everything is stored in a database that tracks and keeps any personal information that is entered by users. As users continue to use the internet to complete important tasks such as purchasing items and paying bills, their privacy and security become at risk. Although the internet can be seen to have a positive impact on society, it does have a negative impact. Since the internet can be accessed by anybody it can cause a lot of damage. Examples of internet risk include identity thieves, phasing, and scams. Due to things such as online shopping, banking and other e-commerce options, personal information is stored in the internet enabling many cybercrimes to occur. Cybercrimes are very similar to any regular crime; the crime just happens to take place on websites for criminals to hack and steal user’s information for their own personal benefit. Cybercriminals tend to attack users based on their emails, social media accounts, and web history because the most history about an individual is stored in those sites.

Internet is the composer of the modern age: it helps everyone to access different data, it allows people to communicate across oceans and lands, it connects companies to reach out to their potential customers, and et cetera. This is a powerful tool to change the world. It is such an accessible tool that becomes part of our lives. There is no doubt that the benefits of the internet outweigh disadvantages of it, however, this conducive tool also gives authority and other parties means to invade personal privacy. This consequence of an open communication network is unavoidable. There are tech companies give us accessibility to the internet through the support of browsers, emails, clouds and others by intruding personal data. They have servers and machines store their customers’ data in unknown locations. Yet, majority of the people are not aware of what kind of data they collect, the flow of the data after they had collected them, and what can they do with the data.

E-commerce is transactions conducted via electronic means such as the internet, email and SMS. It is considered to be one of the most important aspects of the internet to appear. As a result, people are able to exchange goods and services immediately regardless of their geographic location and time. More and more businesses conduct transactions on line, with some trading purely on-line thus reducing overheads and administrative costs.

The continuous development of Internet leads to the growth of e-commerce. The electronic commerce is growing constantly due to the continuously increasing number of mobile and online users in the market, primarily the emerging markets. Besides that, the development of the Information Technology (IT), such as the advance of paying processes and the improvements of shipping method also the main reason to cause the growth of electronic commerce (John Ingham, 2015). Most consumers accept e-commerce as their feasible alternative in the purchase of goods and

With the development of the Internet and technology, people can accomplish more without stepping out of their houses. The Internet provides us with its great convenience. Also, many payments can be completed on the Internet. For example, we can pay for our tuition just by clicking the button on the webpage; international students can purchase the cheapest air ticket after comparing prices from different airlines at the same time; ladies can buy the latest oversea fashion designs online without paying the expensive travel fees. No matter how people get used to the old pattern of transacting, the traditional way to transact will definitely affect by this new method of transacting. This paper will focus on illustrating the advantages of online transaction and on how online transactions are going to change people’s way of doing business.