Private and Personal Information Available on the Web - Essay Example

of essay's assignment is due. Private and personal information available on the web provides opportunities and exposures. Website being the huge source of information and opportunities providers to expose and explore oneself to the world of knowledge and fame, with very minimal and affordable economical expenditure, are whirling into straightforwardly accessible platform for the people but at the same time detaining most of the personal interests and rights of a person for the use of the commercial unit and making the personage fatalities of the situations. The persons, who are using the advantage of the Internet and hosting their personal information on the websites, are putting themselves on the risk of being abused themselves. Probably they don't know that their identity is one of the most valuable assets (ICO). And they should take care to protect it from spreading discriminately online. Protecting their privacy online will ensure that they are not leaving their personal information open to abuse (Australian Government). In an open environment any one can have a taste of the matter. The people have a general right to be granted access to the personal information that organizations and agencies hold about them (Australian Government). But such persons are less aware of the fact that their information may be used for the various purposes including the resource to earn money by scammers, spammers or phishers etc.. To avoid discrimination people should know their right. They have diversity of sources to know about their right to protect their personal information, which they have supplied to a range of companies for countless reasons. The more a person knows about his/her rights, the easier it will be for him/her to safeguard his/her privacy (Australian Government). But they are less aware that the companies have taken their consent in their agreement section that their information may be used for their business purposes. Most of them are even not aware what they have signed for. Many credit agencies have gathered information from other agency for handsome amount without the consent of the customer and sold them for their commercial use. There are instances where people don't know about their right and importance of their privacy. They commit such a nuisance that they defame their personal image. For example, the persons, specially crazy girls and even curious women who are interested in publishing their personal information including photograph on internet on free hosting websites, are not aware of the fact that their identity is revealed to the world and they may fall a prey to the world of the prohibited by pornographers. Their ignorance can easily give opportunities, putting themselves in various troubles, to them to earn handsome money out of their clandestine materials. Several examples can be sited to show that the delicate information provided on Internet can make such a big harm to the people that they may even take their life as the compensation of the fault. In early September, a web developer took an apparently real advertisement placed online by a woman looking for a sexual liaison and posted it on the Seattle "casual encounters" section of the Craigslist bulletin board, according to press reports. There were 178 responses to the phony sexual solicitation, many of which included compromising photos. The developer then posted all the responses on a public website, including photos, email addresses and other personal information -- where anyone could view them. (Wharton). Another case of taking the advantage of using the personal matter for the use of Internet shows the wild nature of misuse of the information. A young woman in Seoul was on a subway train with her pet dog when the animal relieved itself on the floor. The woman did not clean up the mess, angering other riders, and the woman herself reportedly became surly as tensions escalated. Using a camera phone -- at 99%, South Korea has the highest camera-phone penetration in the world -- a passenger snapped a picture of the woman and the mess her dog had created. The photo, along with language describing what had happened, was posted online and eventually appeared on many sites. Some viewers were able to identify the woman, who became such a pariah that she dropped out of college and went into hiding. (Wharton) A News channel (Aaj Tak) in a show of crime reporter has revealed that a couple prepares the videos and photograph of their personal moments at some special occasion for their interest and they deliberately posted them on Internet. They were just interested to see what happen. The happenings were much more than they have expected. They have to leave the society as most of the person residing there can easily identify them and use to comment insensitively. Another case shows that a crazy girl in the city of Mumbai was very much interested in self-video creation. She has many boy friends with whom she spends most of the time in preparing the video for the documentary film. One day her best boyfriend suggests her to have captured in the camera with some special moments. The girl agreed keeping in mind that the video will be for the personal use to make the moment commit to their memory forever. The boy was very clever and he uses the matter efficiently along with personal information for hosting on website without the consent of the girl. Within a month she uses to receive the phone calls from the different part of the world to spend some time for money. She was so constrained with the circumstances that she has to abscond from the city forever. In absence of the awareness about revealing the secrecy of personal information to website, most the people feel comfortable to provide their personal data without any research or enquiry about the authenticity of the website. They are not even bothered to have any conformation about the safe use of the data consequently they become the victim. Some of the social networking website are collecting the personal data and supplying it to an assortment of places without any assent of the individuals. Anita L. Allen, professor of law and philosophy at the University of Pennsylvania and a leading expert on privacy issues, states that misuse of the information on internet are running discriminately for decade. The problems are not new for her. She concludes: It goes way back to the general problem that people will use personal information that they can collect through surreptitious or open means to advance their interest at our expense, Gossip, which has been with us forever, is the same type of problem. As long as there have been businesses, there have been issues of confidentiality. There's nothing new there. What's new is the ease with which information can be collected and shared, and the ease with which it can be maintained for indefinite periods of time. The view of Werbach, professor of legal studies and business ethics at Wharton is more or less similar to Professor Allen. His contemplation is something complaining about the younger generations. In his words: In general, there has never been so much personal information about individuals as readily accessible as there is today with the Internet, It's particularly so with social-networking sites. It's also the case that the younger generation -- teens and 20-somethings -- are by and large more comfortable with putting personal details on websites than prior generations. Keeping all the cases in mind the people should have generous acquaintance to protect their personal information right keeping a tag on their exposure without cavernous thought on the matters. Identityfinder.com has a suggestion "Limit Your Exposures" and estimated that "by the year 2010, black market trafficking of stolen electronic identities will increase to $1.6 billion." In order to give a tough fight to the companies who are discriminately using your data for their benefit you should know your rights to protect your personal information, which you are going to share them. ICO has given full guideline to know about this. It has given all the relevant information about the following- How to access information, Correcting information, Preventing processing of information, Preventing unsolicited marketing, Preventing automated decision making, Claiming compensation and Exempt information etc. Though you cannot fully protect your right but you have a limited right under the Data Protection Act to tell an individual or organization to stop processing information about you if it is causing you unwarranted and substantial damage or distress (ICO). If a specific organization is targeting you with direct marketing information, you have the right to send that organization a notice requiring them to stop or not to begin processing your personal data for the purposes of direct marketing at the end of such period of time as is reasonable in the circumstances. (ICO) In spite of various constrains provided by different authorities and International laws, some of the companies especially the credit agencies are using the personal information, gathered on their website at the time of access of the persons, for their economical and commercial use to enhance the marketing strategy. They claim to have valid rights and agreement consent of the customer for such act. By registering on or using their site, the people consent to the disclosure of their personal information to their partners and affiliates (Pollutiononline). They claim that sharing consumer information is legal. An interesting report from York County, PA shows how a credit agency have used the information for their business purpose: Many consumers have become aware of the dangers of identity theft and have taken steps to protect their personal information. But a York County woman recently learned her privacy rights don't extend as far as she thought. At first, Diane Dowdell thought it was a harmless piece of mail. A few months ago, she got a letter from Wells Fargo Bank telling her that her personal information had been stolen from the computer of a so-called data provider. But Dowdell said she has never done business with Wells Fargo and was stunned to find out how they got her information. "They bought my information," said Dowdell. "The whole entire bit -- driver's license, social security, date of birth -- everything you could imagine, along with my credit history." Dowdell learned that before she became a victim of ID theft, Wells Fargo was looking at her as a potential customer. "They forwarded it to another company to take a look and see if they were going to offer me some sort of an equity line of credit," said Dowdell. "It was the other company sitting on my information that the computers were compromised." The other company is a data broker part of a multibillion dollar industry that buys and sells personal consumer information. "It doesn't seem to me that that should be legal -- bits of information that somebody can buy and sell behind my back," said Dowdell. But it is legal and ironically it's allowed to happen because of a law that was supposed to protect consumers rights. The Graham-Leach-Bliley Act passed in 1999 allows banks, credit card companies and insurance companies to share consumer information with so-called affiliates. There is no limit on the number of affiliates they can have. "They're allowed to share your information with those affiliates even if you say no," said Ed Mierzwinski of Penn PIRG. "That's how bad the law is. So I blame this on Congress." Mierzwinski, a privacy rights expert, said many consumers find out about this issue the hard way. Dowdell wasn't aware of it. "No, no. I thought if anybody was looking into my credit history, I would have to give them the OK to go in there and obtain that information," said Dowdell. Mierzwinski said he wants privacy laws changed in financial reform legislation that's now being discussed. "We've got to give consumers control over their financial information," said Mierzwinski. "We've got to give consumers control over their financial DNA." Consumers can prevent some of their personal information from being passed around these various businesses. The Fair Credit Reporting Act allows consumers to opt-out of credit card or insurance offers. So, the personal interest of the individual will only keep a tab on the various companies from extending their illegal hand to the holy cloth of the individuals. The awareness and campaign will become helpful in resolving such difficult situation. The people should have been self-determined with moral and social responsibility not to disclose their personal identity without any valid and urgent reason before going discriminately. They have to provide sufficient amount of time to research the matter if not all then at least for their own satisfaction. They should have also the knowledge about the rights and obligation of the companies to whom they have agreed to give the information. A general campaign is on demand to solve the problems with unity among the people. References (Allen, Anita L. Unwitting Exposure: Does Posting Personal Information Online Mean Giving Up Privacy. October 04, 2006 in Knowledge@Wharton. Accessed on May 20, 2009. . Australian Government, Office of the Privacy Commissioner. Don't Leave Privacy to Chance.2009. Retrieved on 23th April, 2009. From http://www.privacy.gov.au/publications/steps_personal.html "Crime Reporter." Sex abuse program. Narr. Vijay Kumar. Aaj Tak. Mumbai. 26 Sept. 2008. ICO(Information Commissioner's Office). Preventing processing of information. January 2007. Retrieved on 23th April, 2009. From http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/what_we_cover/data_protection/your_rights/preventing_processing_of_information.aspx ICO(Information Commissioner's Office). January 2007.Personal Information Toolkit. Retrieved on 23th April, 2009 From http://www.ico.gov.uk/Home/what_we_cover/data_protection/your_rights/preventing_processing_of_information.aspx Limit Your Exposure. 2009. Retrieved on 23th April, 2009. from http://www.identityfinder.com/Products/Identity_Finder_Editions_Enterprise_Web.html Pollutiononline. Collection and Use of Information.2009. Retrieved on 23th April, 2009. From http://www.pollutiononline.com/VNETCOOKIE=NO Werbach, Kevin Unwitting Exposure: Does Posting Personal Information Online Mean Giving Up Privacy. October 04, 2006 in Knowledge@Wharton. Accessed on May 20, 2009. . YORK COUNTY Companies Make Billions Selling Your Personal Information. POSTED: 3:23 pm EST November 19, 2008. UPDATED: 4:47 pm EST November 19, 2008. Retrieved on 23th April, 2009. From http://www.wgal.com/8onyourside/18017814/detail.html Read More