Tag Archives: facebook

Assignment # 6 – Online Privacy

The readings were enlightening ones. No doubt that they were long and thorough. Let’s start with facebook first; I can say that the advertisers use our personal information. In fact, if your status says that you are single, you will get advertisements on “meet singles in your area”. I figured out that they use your personal information and they use your location through the location services. We all know that this is all around us but some of us pay attention to it and most of us don’t pay attention. I paid attention to it after reading the articles on facebook and privacy. I used internet to pay bills and to buy products online but one time I got a bill for a product that I never ordered. Somebody used my credit card information and purchased. How would you feel if this happens to you…? I cancelled all my online transactions including online banking services. I also had to go through process of changing my account number to inhibit further problems. The way technology is changing by leaps and bounds, the problems regarding online privacy are also increasing in severity. The laws are changing, the privacy statements are changing, but people hardly find time to go through all that pages of reading. To save time, they agree to terms and conditions, without even realizing that they just gave consent to be used by service providers.

Internet Privacy

Both of these reading about privacy on the internet really shed some light on how vulnerable we actually are when sharing information online. We sometimes tend to feel safe because we are hiding behind a keyboard. We can say whatever we want, do whatever we want. But the truth is that everything we do on the web becomes stored data. When we search for a product online or visit a website we’ll more often than not receive ads for that product or site tailored just for us. When you visit a website it creates a cookie that can be retrieved later if you visit the site again. It can also be used to store personal data and passwords so you won’t have to manually enter it again. Sites like Google can use this data to tell you how many times and the last date that you visited a website. And can be used to track searches you’ve made. On Facebook you can see who’s single and who’s in a relationship. Who’s dating who. What sites or groups a person liked. A lot of people find it to be an invasion of their privacy but at the same time we do have some control of what we choose to put on the internet, although not all. And because it’s participatory this makes it hard to enforce strict laws to effectively protect users online.