INTERNET PRIVACY

What is Internet Privacy? -Internet privacy is the privacy and safety you have when you are online. --Internet privacy can be breached by many manual and automated attackers such as: tracking cookies, viruses, map tools such as google earth, and search engines.

Breaches of Internet Privacy Tracking Cookies-Tracking cookies can save your information after visiting a website. Some think of them as breaches of privacy. Viruses-Certain viruses can save your personal data and can sometimes even send that information to remote locations. There are now viruses that can access the camera on your computer and send the information to a remote location. That means people like this guy are watching you.

Breaches of Internet Privacy (cont’d) Street view-The street view of google maps can be thought of as a breach of privacy because anyone can see someone’s house or personal property at the click of a mouse. Search engines now contain sites that, if you type in someone’s name, the site will provide all of the available information of that person which can consist of: address, home address, and phone number. This can lead to internet predators such as this man getting ahold of very personal information.

History of Internet privacy Back a couple of decades ago when the internet was created, a great decrease in privacy occurred. As the internet has become more and more widespread and understood, privacy has become a bigger and bigger issue. Now, the internet leads to molestations and murders everyday. Since these occurrances have increased, they have not decreased. The gorvernment as well as many organizations are trying to address this problem in the most efficient manner they can.

Steps Towards Safety The Government is beginning to adopt plans that allow trusted officials to access personal information of U.S. citizens. This is to help officials identify people early who may be prone to taking advantage of people across the internet. In past years, data has shown that these plans do not significantly reduce internet attacks. Most schools are now teaching children about internet safety, and organizations are forming to try and educate people about the potential risks of giving too much information over the internet.

Walls to Climb No one knows how to make the internet stricter without hindering the capabilities of it. With so many sites now on the internet, it is hard to monitor the whole internet.

Our Opinion The main solution to this problem is to educate people. We need to educate people on what sites to give information to, and how much information to give to those sites. The key to a solution is knowledge.