When I think about privacy, I think about my everyday life and how it would be affected if privacy were a luxury of the past. Our twenty-first century lifestyle of 'wireless' this and 'easy access' that, has us on the internet a good portion of our time throughout a typical week. When thinking about a usual day in my life, I want privacy: when I am getting out of the shower and getting dressed, when I am studying, doing homework, reading, on my cell phone, going to the bathroom, and so on…. That is a lot of privacy, and that is only looking at one day out of the thousands I have already spent on this earth. I would define privacy as anything or anytime the seclusion of myself or information regarding myself is intended to be without disturbance or intrusion. Providing this definition, do people today, given their 'everything internet' (dealing with more activities online than not) lives, think about the internet as something they need to be protected from? Acc
ording to Sullivan, "The simple act of surrendering a telephone number to a store clerk may seem innocuous." How many times have we set up accounts online where we give our names, addresses, and phone numbers? I am sure many, and why do we half of the times not think twice about disclosing this personal information over the internet which reaches millions of people everyday? This information for all we know could be given to hackers, credit card thieves, or other people or places that pose a threat. I believe the internet is a great place like any other, but any great place has a few problem areas which need to be brought to people's attention and looked after.
Why is it that every time I open my e-mail account and sign in under a secure location that several e-mails in my inbox read, "Hi Dominick, we have the perfect car for you!" or "Hi Dominick, want to increase your penis size?" or "Dominick, Buffalo has a lot to offer, visit our website to find out what you've been missing!" It is like the companies behind these personalized e-mails search out and finds my e-mail address and the name of the person that has access to that e-mail account, where I live, and anything else that relates to me. I might first admit that when I am online, I do not always take every precautionary measure in fully protecting myself. According to Wikipedia, the answer to this rather puzzling question could be, "On the Internet, certain organizations employ profiling of people's web browsing, collecting the URLs of sites visited. The resulting profiles may or may not link with information that personally identifies the people who did the browsing." I did not know that when I signed up for Road Runner high-speed internet, someone was going to be monitoring my every online mouse click! Why, or the better question might be how do certain organizations have the r
ight to essentially stalk internet users? It is not that I didn't know what people will do for a little business and to make money, it is just that you never think something can happen to YOU personally.
As more and more e-mails kept entering my inbox, I was beginning to get annoyed. I decided to do a few things that would put me at less risk with fraud and would put me in a more comfortable atmosphere (what it should be) when I am on the internet. I updated my personal information on all of my internet accounts, and by updated I mean deleted. So far, I have not noticed a significantly less amount of e-mails involving my name probably because those company's information systems probably already have my personal data stored. What I can expect though, is that the number of these e-mails should not increase on a day-to-day basis and if I cannot win completely, at least I slowed them down or lead them away from my trail.
Looking at the internet in a privacy lane of vision, in some aspects it has become a place where hunters seek out the weakest link and strike when the moment is right. Even when spy protection programs are installed and internet users take all the necessary precautions in protecting their privacy, the internet, along with anything else in life, will always be outrun and out beat by those who find ways to overcome it.
ording to Sullivan, "The simple act of surrendering a telephone number to a store clerk may seem innocuous." How many times have we set up accounts online where we give our names, addresses, and phone numbers? I am sure many, and why do we half of the times not think twice about disclosing this personal information over the internet which reaches millions of people everyday? This information for all we know could be given to hackers, credit card thieves, or other people or places that pose a threat. I believe the internet is a great place like any other, but any great place has a few problem areas which need to be brought to people's attention and looked after.Why is it that every time I open my e-mail account and sign in under a secure location that several e-mails in my inbox read, "Hi Dominick, we have the perfect car for you!" or "Hi Dominick, want to increase your penis size?" or "Dominick, Buffalo has a lot to offer, visit our website to find out what you've been missing!" It is like the companies behind these personalized e-mails search out and finds my e-mail address and the name of the person that has access to that e-mail account, where I live, and anything else that relates to me. I might first admit that when I am online, I do not always take every precautionary measure in fully protecting myself. According to Wikipedia, the answer to this rather puzzling question could be, "On the Internet, certain organizations employ profiling of people's web browsing, collecting the URLs of sites visited. The resulting profiles may or may not link with information that personally identifies the people who did the browsing." I did not know that when I signed up for Road Runner high-speed internet, someone was going to be monitoring my every online mouse click! Why, or the better question might be how do certain organizations have the r
ight to essentially stalk internet users? It is not that I didn't know what people will do for a little business and to make money, it is just that you never think something can happen to YOU personally.As more and more e-mails kept entering my inbox, I was beginning to get annoyed. I decided to do a few things that would put me at less risk with fraud and would put me in a more comfortable atmosphere (what it should be) when I am on the internet. I updated my personal information on all of my internet accounts, and by updated I mean deleted. So far, I have not noticed a significantly less amount of e-mails involving my name probably because those company's information systems probably already have my personal data stored. What I can expect though, is that the number of these e-mails should not increase on a day-to-day basis and if I cannot win completely, at least I slowed them down or lead them away from my trail.
Looking at the internet in a privacy lane of vision, in some aspects it has become a place where hunters seek out the weakest link and strike when the moment is right. Even when spy protection programs are installed and internet users take all the necessary precautions in protecting their privacy, the internet, along with anything else in life, will always be outrun and out beat by those who find ways to overcome it.
References
Data privacy. (2007, February 8). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 00:30, February 16, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Data_privacy&oldid=106538402
Internet privacy. (2007, February 14). In Wikipedia, The Free Encyclopedia. Retrieved 23:26, February 14, 2007, from http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Internet_privacy&oldid=108031912
Sullivan, Bob. (October 17, 2006) Privacy under attack, but does anybody care? MSNBC Interactive. Retrieved February 15, 2007 from http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/15221095/
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