Social Media as Instruments of Control and Consensus Making Privacy and the Web – Social Media as Instruments of Control and Consensus Making Cyber Heritage WH 02

Key Words Web Identity Internet Privacy Cookies ISP Pharming Phishing

Thought Questions Is the information you post on the web about yourself (i.e usernames, passwords, bank accounts, etc.) safe? If not, how can people use that information against you or for you? How can ISPs (Internet Service Providers) trace all your internet usage (History of visited websites, time of usage, location, etc) back to your own computer? How can Social Media such as Facebook move the masses?

The Internet and You: What do we use the Internet for? Surfing the Web: Google Manage Monetary Transactions such as Bank Accounts, Bills, etc. Socializing: Facebook, MySpace Watching Videos: YouTube School: Research, Read eBooks, UCMCROPS

Key Words – Internet Privacy and Web Identity Internet Privacy involves the right or mandate of personal privacy concerning the storing, repurposing, providing to third-parties, and displaying of information pertaining to oneself via the Internet. Your Web Identity is the collection of all that information you store on the web, such as Accounts for Facebook, YouTube, even Bank Accounts.

The Phenomenon that is Facebook: Making Private Information Public Facebook is a gold mine of information for many people. Since a lot of people tend to place information on facebook such as age, place of residence (or even where you currently are), relationship status, and many more private Information, that information can be viewed by not just your friends, but anyone who can use facebook.

Many Companies/Businesses looking to hire new workers are now starting to use facebook to gain valuable information on those they are about to hire. Given enough hacking experience, those who have a less desirable goal can also acquire information from your account, even if you manage to hide it using protection settings, such as hackers and internet stalkers. Even if you manage to find out someone is using your information, the ones who used it can be very hard to find.

Key Word – Cookie (No, not the delicious kind) An HTTP Cookie is something that aids in accessing specific websites and website features, stored on a user’s computer It may also be used for user-tracking by storing special usage history data in a cookie. As a result, some types of cookies are classified as a tracking cookie.

Internet Browsers: A Real Life Cookie Monster Your Internet Browser stores all the cookies you received until you delete them, however, not all can be easily removed, while some stay forever. Types of Cookies: Flash Cookie - also known as Local Shared Objects, work the same ways as normal cookies and are used by the Adobe Flash Player to store information at the user's computer. They exhibit a similar privacy risk as normal cookies, but are not as easily blocked, meaning that the option in most browsers to not accept cookies does not affect flash cookies. Ever Cookie - a JavaScript-based application which produces cookies in a web browser that actively "resist" deletion by redundantly copying themselves in different forms on the user's machine and resurrecting copies are missing or expired.

Key Word – Internet Service Providers (ISPs) Services such as AT&T and Comcast that provide users with access to the internet. All the data that is transmitted from the user is also passed through the ISP.

If ISPs receive the data transmitted to the internet, ISPs can also monitor and observe the users activities on the web. (Verizon Wireless keeps what websites a subscriber visits for over a year)

Hackers and Schemers The internet is a very dangerous place if one does not know where to go. Certain people can trick a user into disclosing personal information such as usernames and passwords through a process called phishing. This can be done using seemingly appropriate hyperlinks that lead to a completely different website. There has been an increase from 7000 reported in Oct 2004 to 15000 in Jun 2005.

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Other than being tricked to give away information, users can also have information removed directly from their computers with pharming. Pharming is when hackers redirect traffic from a legitimate website to a completely different one. It is conducted by changing the hosts file on a victim’s computer or by exploiting a vulnerability on the DNS server. http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

http://www.google.com/imghp?hl=en&tab=wi

Social Media and the Masses: How one Facebook/MySpace Post can Manipulate Millions Nothing symbolizes free speech more than the internet. Anybody can post whatever they want, and say anything. There are no holds on information. Unlike good old fashioned media such as TV and Newspapers that can be controlled by the government very easily, New Media such as the Internet is a little harder to keep a leash on.

Even if the government does manage to shut down the internet service in a given area, one can still acquire internet connection through other sources such as satellite connection adapters. Since there are rarely no holds on information, a group can practically run an entire meeting online without much difficulty of being stopped compared to holding the meeting in person.

Social Media as Instruments of Control Social Media can also be used by officials to gain favor from the masses. The recent presidential election of 2008 facilitated the use of social media websites such as Facebook and YouTube by the presidential candidates in order to gain the favor of voters, and played a major role in the outcome of the election.

Questions Do you think you have privacy on the web? How do you think we can have privacy on the web? Is technology taking our privacy away? Explain. Video : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=- e98hxHZiTg&feature=related