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Privacy on Internet Essay

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David Gallo
Ms. Snellings
English III
April 1st, 2012
Internet Privacy Essay

With the internet gaining such popularity, privacy has become a thing of the past. People have come to accept that strangers can view personal information about them on social networks such as facebook, and companies and the government are constantly viewing peoples’ activity online for a variety of reasons. The government has attempted to help the consumer regain their privacy online by passing the Consumer Internet Privacy Protection Act of 1997, although it is difficult to enforce and has become outdated with the fast-moving tendency of the constantly changing internet. Some companies including yahoo and google have come under scrutiny about violating …show more content…

They also share personal information including email to several other websites, resulting in endless spam. A study was done that proved at least 45% of the top 185 most visited websites are sharing user information with another website—and often, they share with at least four other websites. On many websites, at the end of their privacy policy is a small, pre-checked box that asks the user whether this website can share your information with other websites. Many people don’t even see this box, and end up agreeing to it because it is so discreet and already checked off. Furthermore, “Online advertising is an enormous source of information collected about consumers, and serves as an important lens to focus our understanding of data collection and use.” (Harbour) These companies use text files called cookies to save the pages you visit and information you like to view, storing it right on your own computer (Lane). Most people don’t realize what types and amounts of information collected by internet businesses, or why it’s commercially valuable. Data is currency in the internet industry, and the greater amount of data, the greater potential for analysis and profit. Companies have to stop collecting so much data about their consumers, as personal browsing information is private and

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