Internet Privacy

Privacy is a very important and relevant topic in society today. Especially with the interaction between people over the internet, there are more and more issues regarding privacy surfacing every day. There are many challenges people face regarding privacy and their safety, and there are many solutions to these challenges. Much of this depends on the level of awareness people have. If you aren't paying attention to what you are doing online, there is a much greater risk of your personal space being invaded.

Roger Clarke is a researcher who specializes in privacy and his definition of the word is: privacy is the interest individuals have in sustaining "personal space", free from interference by other people or organizations. I had used the term "personal space" earlier, then came across this definition and thought it was relevant. Sometimes individuals can not easily protect this space, but when online, the casual internet user can easily protect their space by creating passwords, not clicking the "remember me" box that automatically signs users in, not using "cookies" that can store information, etc. These easy steps can stop someone from becoming a victim of privacy infringement.

There are many debates about privacy, and the internet isn't the only place where this occurs. In Europe, surveillance cameras record the everyday lives of millions of people. In a sign of the world we live in, 3.8 million dollars has been spent on related surveillance equipment including 4 million individual security cameras. Compare this to the internet and websites like Facebook and MySpace. Anybody can keep track of someone else's life if their profile is in public view. Everyone has heard the stories of younger kids meeting people pretending to be who they aren't, in an attempt to harm the kids, or young adults' relationships that result in inappropriate conduct. This can be prevented by setting your profile to private, or if you are really concerned about it, not signing up for the site at all. Most college students, including myself, are still going to participate in things like Facebook, and until they themselves feel threatened, not change anything.

Wikipedia states that Internet Service Providers collect and analyze data about people when they are online. Is this a breach of privacy? ISP's may need the data for billing purposes or something like that, but when they get involved in the browsing habits or website history of it's customers, that is viewed more negatively. So, without even realizing it sometimes, everybody's personal space may have been examined, and not much can be done about it short of not going online at all.

Especially for college aged students, it is difficult to completely cut off your computer with others. As previously discussed, file sharing is at a high point, and websites like Facebook are extremely popular. Doing the little things to protect a computer and not purposely displaying info can help, but the issues over internet privacy will increase as the popularity of the internet increases. While most people may never face an issue, the people that do may increase as time goes on.