Is Online Privacy Really Private?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Ian Pei

We all know that online privacy has a large gray area of what’s usually seen and what’s not. And we all know too well that our online privacy isn’t really private because anyone with the right programs and technological skills to operate them, will be able to see what you’re seeing. Even now, government monitors what people are doing on their computers whether it’s late at night or early in the morning. The government feels they have to in order to keep certain information safe and to be able to act on possibly planned crisis in the future. Patrick Marshall explains this information of government early on in his essay, Online Privacy: Do Americans Need Better Protection?

Another group that monitors people’s history and privacy are the advertising companies because they want to get an idea of your interests and hobbies. They intrude on your information so that they can try to advertise and sell you products that you may like or want.

This makes me wonder, who else is looking at my privacy and monitoring what I do on my home computer or laptop?

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Online Privacy

Posted on February 27, 2012 by David R

The internet is a modern marvel growing at an exponential rate every day, so of course advertisers and retailers have to exploit it. The “online piracy” article brings us up to speed about how invasive companies and markets can be when they do “targeted advertising”. It seems that regardless if you have to click “I agree” before joining social networks or signing up online to any server, that is all just for show as it doesn’t actually hold any value. According to this article and “targeted advertising” companies still have access to your privacy and know exactly what you are doing. Even better than that, they sell or relay the information they gather and send it to another retailer online. Together they make a profile that targets you based on your searches and interests. So not only has advertising reached the internet but it has become much more sophisticated in gathering information on you.

 

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Privacy

Posted on February 27, 2012 by evortega

One thing that i learn about the web is that anything you do is never private. Privacy on web pages is just saying that they’ll hide info from others that visit the same website and can view your profile. But some people don’t care or think about privacy. Those people are familiarly known as “addicts” like those on Facebook. Government and others can view any action you take online. They can trace all of your history. Even now, somebody is watching over my online activity through another computer. Probably a government official or a hacker. Hopefully i won’t be a victim of any sort of theft online.

 

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Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck

Posted on February 27, 2012 by mbottaro

Nomatter what the creaters of Facebook do people will always find someething obscure and unwanted about it.  In the article “Facebook’s Privacy Trainwreck,” Danah Boyd discusses how in 2006 Facebook inplamented the “News Feed” feature.  This was a way that you can see all status updates, groups and even relationship updates.  But ofcourse, there were many who were against this feature claiming it is an invasion of privacy.  I for one do not mind the ‘News Feed” feature, simply because all the information that is displayed on it can be seen on your friend’s home page.  So in fact, Facebook has just made it easier to keep in touch with your friends.

There was, however, one really good option that came out of this; the privacy options.  With the privacy options, we can set our pages so only certain people can see your page, no one can see your page or everyone can see your page.  There also is an option to “block” people from requesting you as a friend.  These security settings are very useful and make going on Facebook more safe and satisfy atleast some of the unhappy users.

It is clear that Facebook will make more changes to better social networking.  There will be groups of people who will like it and there will be those who don’t.  Athough Facebook cannot satisfy everyone, they are doing their best to make social networking safe and fun for all.

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Online Privacy: Promised but not Followed

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Michael.M

Internet privacy is promise in so many places but when you really look at it, is it really followed? People these days do not even notice how hard hackers work these days just to steal your information and somehow always succeed. The two websites that I can automatically think of are Facebook and Youtube. Why Youtube you might ask? I don’t know if you watch Disney but while my little brother was watching it, a commercial came on talking about you never know who can steal your video and change it in anyway they want that can result in things you don’t want. Facebook however is just a trap to have everyone stay in touch when in all reality it is a hunting ground for predators or hackers. Post anything that pertains to your everyday life such as your job or school, or even post personal information such as your number or email, you have just put yourself in danger. People even steal your identity just to make a fool out of you and they don’t need any type of special skill to do so! So you tell me, Internet Privacy, a promise or a fallacy?

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Online privacy friend or foe?

Posted on February 27, 2012 by ragoo8111

Generally we can be summed up as trusting individuals . We are easily swayed into believing the hype.  This is the case to be made in Patrick Marshall’s piece on ” Online Privacy”. He factually layers on the dangers associated with a lack of evolving regulations to kerb the advances of online developers. As quickly as they spin out new innovations in online interfaces , social media and digital access. We should have our legal team working on keeping our civil liberties and privacy in check. The Peeping Tom is no longer looking into your bedroom window but in fact is ubiquitous and has been updated to look at us 24/7 . We now live in an age where our naivety enables us to welcome all types of Trojan Horses believing it to be the latest innovation to make our existence more comfortable . Our nagging obsession to be in contact all the time is leaving a digital  DNA trail as Marshall so simply puts it. Face Book and other social networks linking our information to relative sites and people with similar interests friends of our friends soon we are not so insignificant anymore. We can be socially awkward in the real world, yet with our alter ego we become Gods on Face book. This Grandeur leads us to embolden ourselves becoming more confident and daring in putting our intimate information out there . Making a character assessment of us  by the company considering us for a position, change their minds. Despite our privacy settings only exclusive to friends and family. They are still able to acquire this information on us. We tout the latest gadgets as trophies but do we really ever stop to think that the GPS check in feature with our smart phones is really enabling spying on us . Mr X has just checked in to the Yankee Stadium. Our online searches  lead to more suggestions next time we open up the Internet to surf. No privacy protection there . Marshall elaborates on a worst case scenario where the vacation search you attempted leads to your destination being posted on Face book and loads of coupons being delivered to you, and then your absence getting into the wrong hands resulting in your house being burglarized. Friends there are now apps for the I Phone to broadcast its location when stolen and also to snap a picture of the perpetrator and email it to you. Have we given thought, if stealthily it is not doing the same when it is innocently in our possession as well? This is when I suggest that with the same admiration you tout such innovations around . You should do the same in funding a group of legislators to advocate for your civil liberties as well. To me that is really something to boast about , because after 911 and” The Patriot Act”, it disturbs me as to how far this spying will go….

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Privacy Trainwreck? Hardly.

Posted on February 27, 2012 by Liza

What is being hailed as Facebook’s “privacy trainwreck” is hardly the hoopla it’s being portrayed as. Privacy seems to be an ongoing problem with Facebook and its users and more often than not, Facebook users blame the website for revealing certain information that they deemed to be private.

I have two issues regarding that argument:

1.) If there is information that a Facebook user doesn’t want to be released, why in the world would that person put that information on a social networking site in the first place? If a user knows that a photo of himself or herself getting drunk at a friend’s party is not a good thing to share publicly, why do they even consider sharing it, even with friends?

2.) Facebook allows users to set certain information about themselves to be private. If those users are unaware of that feature, they need to click on the “Help” link next to the “Home” link on their Facebook home page when they sign in or look up tutorials online. While it’s plausible that some people are so busy with their lives that they are unaware of changes in Facebook until it’s too late, it doesn’t mean that they can blame the company for exposing information that they could have easily set to private.

Of course, deleting one’s Facebook account doesn’t necessarily solve the privacy issue, since it doesn’t just apply to social networking but to the Internet in general. We can’t even look up anything without having a third party tracking down what it is that we’re looking for so they can bombard us with their products or services.

I understand that not everyone who goes on Facebook is Facebook-savvy, so why do they even have one in the first place? It’s like buying a power tool at a hardware store but you don’t know how to use it when you get home. Whatever happened to people learning about how to use things before using them in the first place?

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“The Cookie Jar”

Posted on February 27, 2012 by darren732

Your Privacy data can and will be at anyone’s fingertips. From advertisers to government agencies your data is out there and available. Each time we go to a website, do a search, view a picture or pull data even store an online document or update an online calendar. We leave a trace of our activity, an in fact information about ourselves online. Be it Facebook, MySpace, a porn site, Shopping Website, Nothing is secret in the Web. Digital DNA it is called, streams of data about us that can be picked up and used by the advertising agencies, government, or those who have other ideas. Cookies and packets of information stored of our visits our photos our words be they good or bad. From leaving a political rant on Facebook, pictures of a particular embarrassing moment. Many old laws are still in effect but as it have been said. “Our courts have not kept up with technology and have not kept up with the needs of privacy,” says the ACLU’s Stanley. “When the Fourth Amendment was written, most of people’s lives took place in the home. Your medical life, your correspondence, your financial records were in the home. And the founding fathers recognized the need for privacy and put in strong protections for privacy in the home. But much of our lives are now stored on the servers of international corporations. And yet we have not extended privacy to cover that.” The cloud based technology and its use is a very good example of what is to come.

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Danah boyd, Facebook Privacy Trainwreck

Posted on February 26, 2012 by Suly Paredes

No matter how many times any website has “Terms” to agree on, they never really go along with there own terms. Facebook has terms that says there is “privacy” involved, yet everyone knows everyone else secret. I like the way researchers from AT&T created a “robot” to collect data from facebook users, and making those pieces of data go public. Finding out that a mole was sent out into the social-network makes facebook a form of a panopticon, where you never know who is looking. The people are the ones viewing everyone’s post and updates and image uploads, are the ones that have full power to destroy the privacy of one user, making every user petrified of uploading and posting. Personally I wouldn’t even type in any part of my private life nor post any private pictures. Point blank, just don’t post anything you want people to know. Society is too addicted to posting and sending and commenting that they forget that out there somewhere, anyone can steal an image or use there words against them. Just don’t say or show what you don’t want people to see or hear. That’s my best form of prevention for privacy not being so private!

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Online Privacy

Posted on February 26, 2012 by itohanedoloyi

I always knew that protecting your identity online was very important, in addition to protecting it from outsiders. While I was reading the articles, the Facebook article stood out to me the most. I personally am a Facebook user, and when I found that whatever one posted on their Facebook would be seen by everyone, I was in an outrage because I personally don’t want to know what’s going on in that person’s life, nor do I want to see who’s dating who. But, it all boils down to how much information you as an online social networking user wants to reveal to other users. And nowadays, Facebook has changed its face, so whenever you’re doing something on Facebook, the whole world would know (figuratively speaking, of course). In the other articles, Mr. Marshall spoke about “cookies,” and how people could somehow use these cookies to alter what you say online.

Honestly speaking, in today’s generation, a person’s identity is found on the internet. More specifically, on these social networking sites that are used to get know someone else international or not, they’re divulging their personal information. Privacy is important, and it’s even more important online when there are people that can easily hack one’s profile. Hopefully, online can become a lot safer than it is now, one can only wish.

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