The Web Never Forgets Statement - Essay Example

The web never forgets Student’s name: Instructor’s Name: Class Name and Code: University: Date of Submission: “The web never forgets.” It is a statement thrown around a lot. Explain how the cloud will affect this statement positively and negatively Introduction Times are changing, and so is change. Change is constant. Thus, it is merely impossible to overlook of the statement, “the web never forgets.” In the contemporary society, with a scenario just as the statement implies, one has to be careful. In fact, Lasica (1998) elaborates that electronic archives are making it impossible for memories to fade. The author points out that the electronic archives are making permanent records of our day to day live. That implies that the past will always be present with these records in time immorial. However, the bigger question that haunts a lot of researchers is whether the cloud computing concept brings with it more advantages than disadvantages. Lasica has the feeling that in deed that the fact that the web cannot forget the snapshot of the memories in the electronic archives has impact for all citizens. The existence of information on the interenet permanently brings into play three aspects that are essential. The aspect of digital footprint, bacground checking and hiring. Digital footprint is the foundation of all other two aspects. It refers to the ability of storing data parmanently in the cloud. It can be as a result of using the internet services such as webpage, social networks, and other offline material linked to the cloud by internet synochization. Digital footprint can either be good or bad. However, it all depends on what the information is used for, what the information entails, what effects it can have on the owner of the information (Alessia, et al., 2014). It can however be good in the case that it brings memories in terms of pictures earlier stored for persons of interest like in a family lineage. Moreover, it is advisable that the when make a post of information any person to be careful because it available to friends, family, strangers, employers and other persons of interest. Background check is the other aspect that cannot be underestimated. It refers to the availability of information in the internet that may help in scrutiny of a private life of a member. The journalists may use this information in the scrutiny of persons who desire to assume electral positions in the government. For instance, the journalists may help the citizens in analyzing the life and times of the potential candidate. But does this not amount to privacy intrusion? It is a question that remains unanswered since the information in use is one that is in public domain power by internet. Will the availability of information shape the way the journalists conduct themselves in interviews with individuals? Will the citizens change their perception on individiuals based on information about them that is publicy available? They are questions that still linger, however, it is possible that vetting for future elective seats will be influenced on information posted years back by the candidates. Hiring is the other endevor that is in a tussle. The employers are tuning into the into the cloud to seek more details on the information about the potentialemployees. Meanwhile it is of essence to note that however good this may sound,it has its negatives such as a creation of a bad impression of someone with a current good resume (Srinivasan, 2014). The past does not necessarily define the future,however, it may in the instance that the cloud is embraced. But, their remains the issue of privacy for the employees and ethics for the employers. Advanced web tracking mechanisms With the sophistication of technology, it has become possible for nearly all information including that in personal computers to be tracked. Clouding computing assumes that internet is a constant factor that will not be affected (Andreas, 2015). Researchers have come into an agreement with the following three advanced web-tracking techniques as will be discussed. The question as to why they are referred to by “advanced” is because they are difficult to control, detect, and when possible it is impossible to remove or restrict them. They are canvas fingerprinting, evercookies and use of “cookie syncing” in conjunction with evercookies (Gunes, et al., n.d.). The concept of the tracking mechanisms is seemingly getting better and better, day after the other. An article in the New York Times in 1999 pointed out as Surveillance on privacy by the marketers through implanting files on their personal computers. It is what has now evolved to the latest canvas fingerprinting that works with the browser. In fact, statistics indicate that the concept of finger printing is used by less than 5% of the top 100, 000 websites. Canvas Fingerprinting Canvas Fingerprinting is a development of Mowery and Shacham, and it a browser. It is the rendering of a text by an adversary into different text. It is a condition only related to the modern browsers. The rendering of a text into different ways is subject to several conditions of a computer. It relies on the graphic cards, operating system, drivers, library, and the browser. The condition may be as a result of differences in system font, font rasterization, API implementations or because of physical display. The adversary has to ensure that they draw as many letters as possible to the canvas (Chang, 2015). Evercookies and respawning Respawning occurs when there is the use of flash cookies in a manner that is not appropriate in order to attain the previously deleted HTTP cookies. A study that was done by Soltani et al. in 2009 indicated that 54 of 100 websites ranked top by Quantcast had flash cookies. The research further realized that of them, 41 of the sites had information on regular cookies. On further analysis, they realized that some of the websites had regenerated previously removed HTTP (Srinivasan, 2014). A follow up research conducted on 2011 by Kamkar is what identified evercookies, which are more sophisticated. Evercookies rely on multiple storage, and besides flash cookies it uses local storage, session storage, and Etags. Cookie syncing Cookie syncing refers to giving of pseudonymous IDs associated with a specific user when making exchange among domains. The ID is usually stored in the cookies for the domains. The domains involved in this process are the third parties and they appear at the first party’s site the user decides to visit. Case study Paul highlights on how the webs un-forgetfulness has come in the way of human beings with harm. Paul further points that, the social network media has brought a lot of undoing as it stand currently. He elaborately points on face book, twitter, blog, and Myspace among others. He further makes a comparison of free speech and privacy. The point is that if laws are passed to protect the privacy of an individual online as Europe is, the free speech is curtailed which to him is most important. The author has the opinion that the only solution to web not having the ability to forget is another technology but not formation of laws. Stacy Snyder is an example of the young elites who have faced the dangers of the web not having the ability to forget, and having their privacy intruded. While about to graduate from the teachers college, she made a post on Myspace regarding the supervisor she had in a public school where she had secured a job. She elaborated on the supervisor in a negative way. Nonetheless, she went further and posted a photo of here wearing a pirate’s hat and held a plastic cup written, “drunken pirate.” The school on observing this decided that she was not fit; they argued she was promoting underage drunkenness. That was not all; they dismissed her from her practicum what resulted to her failure to graduate and missing an award of certificate (Jeffrey, 2011). When this happened, Stacy was not happy and sought for judicial help. She invoked the first Amendment of freedom to speech and they she would post want she had to, in Myspace. The result was not favorable since the judge declined and gave the reasons; that she was an employee in the public sector and that what she had posted was not of public concern. The case was based in the US and not even claiming constitutional right on privacy against Myspace would work since it is private. If it were in Europe or France the case would have a very different story. In these countries, Stacy would have sued Google and Yahoo of letting her dignitary rights assaulted. These countries cherish memories that are forgotten unlike the U.S. The data protection president gave that there should be provision to remove self-data and that indexing of pictures is not allowed. The differences in the laws in different countries may sum it all as Paul points that, technology is the only solution. Reasons for Cloud Computing The web is tailored around cloud computing, and it relies on internet to operationalize. In addition, it is prudent to know that, cloud computing as much as it has evoked mixed reaction; it has great significance to the economy. It has made communication, sharing of information and improvement of operations in different undertakings and sectors of the economy (William, 2015). Disaster recovery for companies information is well suited for cloud computing. It is suitable more than other disaster recovery plans because it is single in handling all the services that the company performs by backing them up in serves. In case the data is lost, then the recovery process is simple and it is faster than any other disaster recovery technique a business would embrace. Automatic software update is another functionality that is enjoyed courtesy of the clouding technology. Before its establishment, companies would spend 18 days of their total working days taking care of security measures. Ever since the introduction of this concept of cloud computing, the companies and all other customers of the software’s are freed to do more productive jobs (Gunes, et al., n.d.). The software and security updates take course automatically, and maintenance by the server providers. Cloud computing is Cap Ex free, which makes it a cheap entry for business. The better part of the story is that the payments are made proportional to the usage in question. Thus, deploying the system is cheap, easy, and less time consuming making it preferable (John & James, 2009). Cloud computing has made collaboration more meaningful and that has led to better results for companies. Moreover, the companies that use this system have their employees share work when they are in different locations. Conversely, to that is that, data is shared to and among employees in real-time. In addition, Flexibility is an essential factor in employee motivation. In fact, research indicates that 46 percent of men would give up some portion of their salary to telecommute (Martin, et al., 2009). In this case, it has made the dream of telecommuting a dream come true for many workers. It makes employees to work even at the shores of the beaches, at the comfort of their residence or on holidays. Security is at the heart of this issue. Statistics indicates that 800,000 laptops get lost in the airports every year. Just imagine of the many more that are lost at the different locations in a country (Michael, 2009). However, the monetary value of the laptop is not of much importance as the information it carries. Thus, the cloud computing offers confidence to the user that they are able to access information however, they lost their laptops. Lastly, the use of cloud computing is environmentally friendly. The use of the computing assures the decrease in carbon emission and energy utility by 30%. Reasons against Cloud Computing Enough of the good that cloud computing can and has done to the world. It has its down falls, and they will be elaborated as follows. Privacy comes in as the first issue of concern. As provides, the service is usually offered by a third party who takes care of the data and maintenance. It becomes an issue because some of the third parties may not have the companies’ interests at heart (Rajkumar & Christian, 2013). Consequently, they may use the information for purposes that are not good. Cyber-attacks has becomes an issue because data is stored in the cloud by all sought of people. The huge volumes of data may be impacted in a negative way when this happens because of the sharing (Sara, 2013). Insider threat is the other big issue. It becomes an issue when the third parties are engaged. The third parties may decide to breach the system to release on private data belonging to customers. Governments’ intrusion on data while in the cloud is another issue of major concern. Actually, the government spy on the information online. Besides, the information in the cloud may be used in a legal battle as evidence against you (Srinivasan, 2014). When there is no support to the cloud computing and cyber-attacks take course and all information is done away with, and a crucial meeting is at stake, what do you do? An issue beats logic. Conclusion In conclusion, the statement that the web never forgets brings into the table mixed reactions. The usage of cloud computing has its highlights as well as downfalls. The fact that there is no way that information connected to the internet can be private possess worry. It calls for selective usage of the things to post online, because it may affect the future openings and possibilities. Moreover, the appreciation of the three advanced web-tracking mechanisms plays a pivotal role in establishing defense mechanisms of reducing the vulnerability of making private information public. As far as the research shows, cloud computing has opened a door of possibilities and made many improvements in the world of businesses, however it has led to other indisputable dangers to businesses and individuals. The laws in place are not commensurate to the extent of the evils of the technology. In instances where it is, it does not offer privacy as defense. It is only good that a better technology be innovated to circumvent the intrusion of private data online by persons with malicious intentions. References Alessia, G., Ângela, P. & Lucia, V.-A., 2014. The Ethics of Memory in a Digital Age: Interrogating the Right to be Forgotten. 1st ed. New York: Palgrave Macmillan. Andreas, H., 2015. Implementation, Usage and Advantages of Cloud Computing within Project. s.l.:GRIN Verlag. Carlos, L., 2015. Analysis of Applications and Success Factors of Cloud Computing for Small-and Medium Sized Business. 1st ed. s.l.:Anchor Academic Publishing (aap_verlag). Chang, V., 2015. Delivery and Adoption of Cloud Computing Services in Contemporary Organizations. 1st ed. New York: IGI Global. Gunes, A. et al., n.d. The Web Never Forgets:Persistent Tracking Mechanisms in the Wild, princeton.edu: Princeton University. JEFFREY, R., 2011. FREE SPEECH, PRIVACY, AND THE WEB, New York: s.n. John, R. & James, R., 2009. Cloud Computing: Implementation, Management, and Security. New York: CRC Press. Lasica, J. D., 1998. AJR. [Online] Available at: http://ajrarchive.org/Article.asp?id=1793 [Accessed 20 October 2015]. Martin, G. J., Gansen, Z. & Chunming, R., 2009. Cloud Computing: First International Conference, CloudCom 2009, Beijing. 1st ed. Guangzhou: Springer. Michael, M., 2009. Cloud Computing: Web-Based Applications That Change the Way You Work and Collaborative Online. 1st ed. s.l.:Que Publishing. Rajkumar, B. & Christian, V., 2013. Mastering Cloud Computing: Foundations and Applications Programming. 1st ed. London: Newnes. Sara, A., 2013. businessnewsdaily. [Online] Available at: http://www.businessnewsdaily.com/5215-dangers-cloud-computing.html [Accessed 20 October 2015]. Srinivasan, S., 2014. Cloud Computing Basics. 1st ed. New York: Springer. Copyright. . Victoria, R., 2011. The Ultimate Guide to Internet Safety Second Edition. Florida: Lulu.com.. William, E. D., 2015. Government 2.0: Using Technology to Improve Education, Cut Red Tape, Reduce Grid Lock and Enhance Democracy. New York: Rowman & Littlefield. Read More