In What Ways Does the Internet Threaten Privacy - Essay Example

Internet technology has brought about a revolution, changed the way people think and communicate and has shrunk the world. Internet is a community ofpeople and organization that communicate through the facility (Clarke, 1998). Internet has seeped into our lives unnoticed. Today Internet is used to transact business, to maintain contacts, for banking, for searching information on any subject and for social networking. More importantly, the Internet has enabled individuals to access, communicate, and distribute information with greater efficiency on a global scale. However, with so much information being exchanged via the Internet, the threat of personal and confidential information falling into the wrong hands, or being unlawfully accessed, is not an uncommon occurrence. Scandals, misuse of chat rooms, Internet bullying of children and adults are common occurrences (Nijboer, 2004). Everyday, thousands of people across the world fall victim to identity theft, fraud, and blackmail through the unlawful access and loss of personal/private information via the Internet. Each milestone in technology poses a new threat to privacy and personal safety. Privacy has been defined as the degree to which personal information is not known by others (Rust, Kannan & Peng, 2002). While the Internet holds great promise of becoming a powerful marketing tool through intelligent use of customer information, it gradually leads to pressures on customer privacy and eventually erosion. It was initially not intended to be privacy-friendly. The application of new technologies has eroded the space between public and private spaces till there was no concept of private space at all. Sometimes when customers provide information over the Internet, they may not be aware how it seeps into other websites and add to their database. This an invasion of consumers’ privacy and the websites sell or exchange databases to interested marketers. At the organization level various threats to privacy have been found. Banking would not be possible without the Internet and yet Internet enables theft of account data as was the case with Bank of America and Time Warner in 2005 (Gleason, 2006). The electronic security systems have embedded flaws. The same technology that promotes online shopping also allows criminals to buy list of credit card and social security numbers from the black market. The effects of technology and ethics are hard to predict and are irreversible. Availability of services and information round the clock has given flexibility to people to plan their schedules. Surveillance has become easier. Apart from cameras and microphones, transactional data is increasingly being collected for virtually all types of transactions, even cash purchases and the acquisition of services (Liffick, 1995). All this has been possible due to round the clock availability of the Internet. It is possible to hack into the client’s computer system 98 percent of the time, says Krause (cited by Gupta & Hammond, 2006). It is now very easy to copy and distribute software through the Internet. Growth in information technology has also led to a new category called the ‘computer criminals’. These criminals can be both within and outside the organization. Messages can be intercepted and manipulated; personal data can be illegally collected while validity of documents can be denied (Gupta & Hammond, 2006). Financial damages in the USA have been caused due to theft of information, financial fraud, viruses, insider net abuse and sabotage. Even though the new US federal laws require thorough safeguards to protect the security and confidentiality of non-financial data, the cyber attacks by terrorists and criminals are growing, which destroys the communications network and the computer system. Business-to-business (B2B) e-commerce face risks to a very great extent. Investigations have revealed that several organized hacker groups from Russia and Ukraine have accessed several e-commerce computer systems in the USA by exploiting the known vulnerabilities (McCrohan, 2003). Microsoft had reported these vulnerabilities and subsequently also publicized how these could be fixed but many firms did not pay heed to it. As a result, the hackers could access proprietary information, customer database and credit card information. Apart from this e-commerce is also subject to hackers. Worms can be attached to emails that copy itself to all types of shared network resources. Data transmitted over the Internet is subject to several risks. The data may not reach the intended recipient or it might reach an unintended recipient (Clarke, 1998). It might even be accessed by an unwanted person and the contents could change while in transit. The nature of the Internet is such that the message passes through between 1 and 25 processors from the time it leaves the sender’s organization and reaches the recipient. The systems manager at each step has an opportunity to intercept messages. Besides, people leave a large number of data trails behind them. Cookies capture the emails sent and received, the web pages visited and records of transactions done through the Internet. All these have made identity theft very common and people fear losing their identity. Identity theft is the acquisition and use of sufficient evidence of identity relating to a particular person that the thief can operate as though they were that person. Thus the Internet allows easy unauthorized access to proprietary user data even for those users who take precautions (Economides, n.d.). Vast majority of the Internet users are unaware of the security threat that the Internet poses in their private information. There are no sophisticated protocols to block access to private data and to encrypt transmitted data (Rust, Kannan & Peng, 2002). There is absolutely no privacy that an individual can enjoy because vendors extract details of the trading of stocks or visits to websites (Economides, n.d.). Based on this information, the vendors send out mails soliciting business or offering products or services. At the personal level too privacy is threatened as networking has increased. Online interactive media enables social interaction between users, users and publishers and users and businesses (Humphreys, 2007). Social networking has made virtually every individual a public figure. The social networking sites serve as the platform where the users freely advertise about themselves without restrictions. Lenhart and Madden (2007) describe social networking site as an online location where users can create a profile and build a social network that connects him or her to other users. Boyd (2007) is not so confident of the benefits of these sites. Internet lacks walls and messages and conversations spread instantly; the text can be manipulated. Even with the latest development to protect and provide security, every digital wall has been destroyed by new technologies. Hence in these public spaces most feel nobody would come knocking at their door so they carry on with whatever they wish to do. Nevertheless, it puts most users at risk because it takes just one motivated explorer to track down even the most obscure networked public presence. Social networking sites enable self-expression but the roles are sometimes in conflict. It can spread erroneous misinformation as happened as had occurred during the shoot out at Virginia Poly technique Institute (Gohring, 2007). A student’s site featured photos that appear to show him with a large gun collection. Immediately rumors spread that he was the shooter and he started receiving death threats. Customers have to trade off convenience by providing valuable information about themselves (Rust, Kannan & Peng, 2002). They cannot transact on the Internet without revealing important information that they may be unwilling to share. The higher the level of service required, more information would have to be disclosed. Thus Internet marketing has enabled creation of large databases of consumers, their buying habits and demographics. This has been possible because user identity has remained unregulated and unprotected over the Internet. Monitoring Internet data after 9/11 has become legalized. All the major ISPs have installed surveillance software to monitor email messages and store records of Internet activity by people suspected having suspicious foreign contacts (Nijboer, 2004). Even before this was imposed, in 1999, Enonymous.com, a web privacy rating company found that only 3.5 percent of 30,000 websites never shared personal information with other parties and 73 percent had no privacy policies at all (Rust, Kannan & Peng, 2002). As technology has advanced collecting information over the Internet has become easier and faster. At the same time the cost of obtaining and processing personal information has declined. At this rate privacy will continue to erode until it actually vanishes. Internet holds tremendous promise of new processes, goods and services. Internet threatens security at every step. An individual can neither access email nor search for information without leaving trails behind. He can neither make online purchases or trade without revealing private data. There is threat to loss of personal identity and not just personal information. Computer networks are very effectively used to collect user data even without the user’s knowledge. The Internet is used by organizations as a powerful tracking tool which significantly erodes individual privacy. Privacy is a basic human right and the need for information filtering is important. Consumer privacy protection is imperative whether the government intervenes or the Internet governance is stepped up or consumer advocacy group raises demands of better Internet governance. References: Boyd, D. (2007). Social Network Sites: Public, Private, or What? Available from: http://www.danah.org/papers/KnowledgeTree.pdf [accessed 09 June 2008] Clarke, R. (1998). Information Privacy On the Internet Cyberspace Invades Personal Space. Available from: http://www.anu.edu.au/people/Roger.Clarke/DV/IPrivacy.html [accessed 09 June 2008] Economides, N. (n.d.). The impact of the Internet on financial markets. Available from: http://pages.stern.nyu.edu/networks/The_impact_of_the_Internet_on_financial_markets.pdf [accessed 09 June 2008] Gleason, D. H. (2006), Embedded ethics: how to build better IT mousetraps, Handbook of Business Strategy, pp. 325-329 Gohring, N. (2007). Virginia Tech shooting shows benefits, pitfalls of social networking sites. Available from: http://www.computerworld.com/action/article.do?command=viewArticleBasic&articleId=9017027 [accessed 09 June 2008] Gupta, Atul. & Hammond, R. (2006), Information Management & Computer Security, Vol. 13 No. 4, 2006. pp. 297-310 Humphreys, S. M. (2007). Online social softwares: policy and regulation in a converged medium. Available from: http://eprints.qut.edu.au/archive/00009770/01/9770.pdf [accessed 09 June 2008] Kim, Sangkyun. (2006), The Bottom Line Managing Library Finances, Vol. 19 No. 3, 2006 pp. 124-138 Lenhart, A. & Madden, M. (2007). Social Networking Websites and Teens: An Overview. Available from: http://www.pewinternet.org/pdfs/PIP_SNS_Data_Memo_Jan_2007.pdf [accessed 09 June 2008] Liffick, B. W. (1995). Social Impact Characteristics of Computer Technology. Available from: http://cs.millersville.edu/~liffick/compchar.html [accessed 09 June 2008] McCrohan, Kevin. F (2003), Journal of Business and Industrial Marketing, Vol. 18 No. 2. 2003. pp. 133-145 Nijboer, J. (2004). Big Brother versus anonymity on the Internet: implications for Internet service providers, libraries and individuals since 9/11. New Library World Volume 105 · Number 1202/1203 · 2004 · pp. 256-261 Rust, R. T. Kannan, O. K. & Peng. N. (2002). The Customer Economics of Internet Privacy. Journal of the Academy of Marketing Science. Volume 30, No. 4, pages 455-464. Read More