Ensuring Appropriate Search Engine Registration - Essay Example

? Ensuring Appropriate Search Engine Registration ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ ------------ Executive Summary The aim of this report is to review the computer crime laws and regulations as they apply to a search engine company. It begins with an overview of search engines and search engine development and how it impacts information sharing on the web. This will involve looking at the investigative measure and techniques that are used to determine if a crime has been committed and methods to gather any evidence. The report also lays focus on the measures a company should take when putting out its content to the web, search engines. Most importantly, the report examines the implications and scenarios that a crime could be committed when a company sets out to put content on the web. Cybercrime has spread and it cut across geographical borders, creating a new form of illegal activity that undermines the legitimacy and feasibility of applying laws based on boundaries. Law making and law enforcing authorities that are bound in territories are finding cyber crime threatening. It is a new concept and the existing laws are not equipped to handle the situation yet. This scenario has put the nation in a situation, not favourable, regarding its efficiency, sovereignty and autonomy to govern itself without inclusion of other parties. However, already established territorial law making and justice authorities may yet learn to hold back to the self-regulatory wants of cyberspace users who care most profoundly about this new digital trade in information ideas, and services. Separated from common beliefs tied to country jurisdictions, new laws will emerge, in an assortment of online spaces, to handle the wide range of new situations that have no clear equals in the real actual world. Accordingly, this article seeks to address and analyse the following issues: Firstly, it incisively looks at how cybercrime is being addressed at the international and national levels. Secondly, it revisits the state of the existing regulatory and legislative framework and their quality use in combating this form of international organised crime, taking the European Union The web is fast evolving and is creating new challenges for information retrieval with every twist and turn in the technology ( Nozaki and Tipton 1999). The information archive is growing rapidly and the number of online users interested in using this result is rising at an alarming yet comforting rate. Alarming to developers who make the websites but comforting to policy makers who believe that it is a paradigm shift and that the information age is here for us to realise its benefits. The internet users experience is a major factor in the art of web searches and it indicates that people always use the most popular websites to do their searches. Another viable option to locating information is a human maintained list, this could cover popular topics effectively and is subjective, expensive to maintain and build. It is also marred with slow improvements and cannot cover the range of all esoteric topics. To the aid of the hurdle experience with the human maintained list is the automated search engines. They rely on matching keywords and return matches. The search engines make heavy use of the additional structure present in website pages built in hypertext and provide much higher and quality search results. The projection of the future search engine content hold in terms of available indexes is on the billion mark. The number of queries alone is beyond 20 million in a single day for a major search engine and the goal of the developers of search engines is to address the many problems both in quality and scalability. The internet has been a tool of trade and use among corporate organisations operating in this information age. There are about several millions of websites online and others still being uploaded every passing moment. The typical browser at a workstation in an internet cafe, home, office or public place is always looking for information. The available information is vast and wide and it would take the average computer user years to muddle through half the content in the very least of time. Till recently, existing criminal laws in most countries did not cover computer-related crimes or crimes perpetrated by electronic means (Parer 1989). Still, many countries lag behind the rest and the fast moving technology change. This is because offences against computers are relatively new files as they arise from a relation to the digital age, which poses a threat to the functionality of the computer systems as assets of border less information society. New legislation have been required in order to protect an orderly and vibrant digitalised environment. Offences through computers are relatively new and they largely constitute new means to commit traditional offences using the internet and electronic communication as the medium tools. New legislation was required in this case since existing legislation is not suitable or adequate. The legislation was not suitable since the language in criminal statutes may in some instances not apply and issues of jurisdiction arise where punishments may not be appropriate. The most important part of search engine marketing is the search engine optimization. It uses the description and keywords and gives the platform to optimize a website’s pages. In the process, the registration creates incoming links to your site and the more relevant links coming in to the site the better it is for a website. The keywords, mentioned above, are only effective if they are included within the text on the website pages. Choosing keywords is a vital step in search engine registration and one should look carefully. First, looking for words that are repeated often gives better success. While many search engines may not use these words to do the ranking of websites they are still useful in placing a website in the appropriate category. As any other corporate organisation search engines are out to make some money for themselves and their stakeholders. They offer a catch in advertising and ranking websites in their hit lists. They crawl the internet for other websites and directly index those which have paid them a subscription fee. However, they are also interested in satisfying their customers and often will vary their service to include other helpful links and information. Some give additional functionality and customization to make their service as usable as any other. Search engine developers have a burning need to produce high precision in the results the users get. First, they make use of the links structure of the web to calculate a reasonable quality ranking for each website page. Their main aim is to bring order to the web and making it usable to browsers from all over the world. Intuit and searching go hand in hand and search engines have the knack to make the two work together. The concept of localization has been adopted by the major search engine developers. In this concept, the search engine returns results that are ranked according to the browsers location. For instance, if a browser is searching from the U.K, the high ranking pages on the query will contain information of websites in the U.K and the rest of the world follows suit. Implication of Search Engine Registration Efficiency, providing search results in a quick way and to the specific query of the browser is one of the optimization techniques adopted by search engines. In the web and amidst the billions of other websites the user is able to get the quality information in the least searches and in the least complicated queries. A potential impact of search engine registration is forming what is referred to as an online library. To begin with, the submissions to search engines compliment the existing traditional library services and allows them to augment their traditional core services. It has led to many companies, organisations and library contributing their ‘virtual’ presence through their websites. These ‘virtual’ libraries give a global reach to anyone on the internet and the presence provides publicity to companies. Developing effective websites is however a challenge and it compromises the content owner identity. Implementing the libraries of information with tons and tons of archived information is hampered by the proprietary issues of information ownership. New opportunities could be discovered by opening up to the world in search engine registration. This is because it narrows down the information to the specific and when a company has tailored its products and services to match closely to what an internet user is looking for they get the market opportunity. In this day and age of information, the risks and opportunities presented to the average internet user on every visit grow by day (Ermann, Williams and Schaurf 1989). The internet has run into our moral societies and into our political, economical and social circles. The law follows the is constantly playing catch-up with the emerging technology. In some areas such as search engines business, the courts have merely touched the tip of the iceberg and are just recognizing the train leaving the station , much less run after it. The train analogy is used herein to show how slow the law and policy makers are following the fast and ever changing technology. The law makers have not been left behind completely as may be the presumption from the preceding statement but rather they are slower than the changing times. They have done well for themselves in following and pre-emptively creating laws to safeguard the interests of the society. One such law is the Obscene Publication ACT 1959. For a business in the print and media category this is a law that they have to follow. It governs the content of the publications they make from the perspective of the consumer. The material must pass the obscenity test where it does not contain more than two instances of obscene content. Further the material has to be in the defence of public good. All material is described as being subject to seizure if determined to contain content that is not upholding moral standards of the society. The law works on the public good and argues that what is good for the public should be something within the acceptable moral standards of any human society. It carries with it some penalties for those contravening the act knowingly or unknowingly. As a general rule, ignorance is no defence and as such the law does not let go those who play dumb and violate the very statutes put in place to guard the honour of a society. This law has been extended to publication made on the web and especially to adult content websites that may want to do search engine registration. The documentation available on the internet resource is large. It provides a library to literary any subject or topic under the earth. The way this information is updated and maintained is a structured and specific process. The search engines developers have painstakingly laboured on their systems to be able to include virtually all available information. Documents, government issued and private, have found their way into the internet through the utilisation of resources. The websites that collect user information for the purposes of social interaction or just online following ought to follow closely with the confidentiality laws. Forgery and Counterfeiting Act 1981 section 25(1) creates an offence for an individual to possess a document which they know or believe to be false. It extends to a genuine document obtained improperly or with the intention that the document be used for identity in a fraud case. Businesses conducting their online operations will adhere to this law and perform their online registration with covenant of good faith. Identity documents are the most targeted by fraudsters and they include passports, identity cards, drivers licence, immigration documents such as visas and any other existing documents issued by the government. Professional practice and ethics need to be followed to the latter in the issue of counterfeiting and forgery. Documents that are presented by an individual with the guarantee that they will be kept safe ought to be kept as such always. The law keenly watches out for those who break it and carries heavy penalties on the part of those who contravene what it states. By and large, the intent of malice by an individual is not downplayed since one can obtain documents from the indexed web in a matter of seconds. This could be look alike or exact documents and it is important to be aware for a company especially, the still penalties they are likely to face in violation to the law. Media houses and communications organisations need to be aware of the Malicious Communications Act 1988 section 1. It expressly defines the limits and extent of human communication and ties this in reasonable bounds. “Any individual who sends to another any electronic communication, a letter or article of any description that passes a message which is grossly offensive or indecent, information or a threat which is false and known or deliberately believed to be untrue by the sender, or any electronic communication or article which is, in its entirerity or part, of an indecent....should be held guilty of an offence if their purpose. Or one of their purposes...” The preceding sentence is a direct quotation of the Act and it outlines in very clear terms the nature of a violation of the said law. A business in the media and print who would like to cover their search engine registration with the content that is of high integrity according to the law should adhere to this Act. The main intent of any business going online rather having an online presence is to reach a global market and for this very reason they should screen the content that they are putting out to the web. This content has potential of being broadcasted out to the entire world, anyone with a workstation and internet access. The levels of accessibility have change since the mobile devices have picked up pace and can now be used to display content. Falsification of information is an offence and it is a requirement to all companies when advertising and listing their websites to only include true information about their products and themselves. In the website development phases, the developers endeavour to capture with precision and to detail the company information, for the purposes of putting content online. The management and stakeholders of the company may be directly involved in this project since the information may extend to the company’s assets and operations. Most of these are run by the organisation which is in turn steered by the existing staff members. Training the staff and establishing their specific needs in an effort to make the project acceptable to them is an important step. In this perspective training facilities equipment and content need to be organised in a very structured way to help in understanding while at the same time give the trainers an easy job in passing through the content to the trainees. Outsourcing the facilitators has long been a common way of getting professionals to handle the training. The benefits realised from using this method are significant to the future and success of the organisation. Registration of a company’s website via search engines has possible implications to changes in company procedures. First, companies put out their content on websites with the aim of attracting a global view it is important to have policies that govern the customer relation and management at this level. The corporate social responsibility and the public image offered by the company have to go hand in hand. In this light following the legislation measures put in place is important in ensuring that the company operates within the boundaries of the law. A company’s data is an asset that is in invaluable. It is not possible to quantify the value of data in monetary terms since when data security is breached the effects are far reaching and at times damage the image of the company. As such, protecting the information and data assets is a priority to any company and management should not overlook this aspect when making the decision to register a website online in the appropriate fashion. Data Protection Act 1998 outlines the circumstances of private data which relates to information about an individual. This could be state of health, opinions, religion, health etc. It goes further to categorise data into corporate and group data. The highlight of this law is the data protection principles it outlines. These principles apply to personal data and any other categories of data as described in the definitions and the law binds the data controller to comply with the data protection principles in relation to all personal data with respect to which he/she is the data controller. In conclusion, a company is bound by law when submitting content to search engine registration. The law views search engine registration as a means of communication and advertising and as such the content submitted must conform with all laws that govern data and communication. Management has the very important role of strategic planning to ensure that the company conforms to the legal requirements. References Nozaki, M.K., & Tipton, H.F 1999, Information Security Management Handbook, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Parer, M.S 1989, Introduction to Computer Law and Ethics, Centre for Distance Learning, Churchill, Victoria. Ermann, M, Williams, & Schauf 1999, Computer, Ethics and Society, Oxford University Press, Oxford. Reed C., & Angel. J 2007, Computer Law: The Law and Regulation of Information Technology, Oxford University Press, New York. Landy, G.K, & Mastrobattista. A 2008, The IT / Digital Legal Companion: A Comprehensive Business Guide to Software, IT, Internet, Media and IP Law, Syngress Publishing Inc,Burlington. Fishman, J.D 2007, Legal Guide to Web & Software Development, Nolo Publishers, Columbia. Read More