Internet PrivacyInternet Privacy: Is theInternet as safe as everyone says?As every generation comes they bring withthem a new invention from cars to television to the telephone the basicexistence of man, in my eyes, is to advance both technologically, thusmaking life better for us all and also scientifically. Man wants to knowall we want to be able to answer all the questions out there as every daygoes by we get closer and closer to answering some of our questions.
Everyday new cures for diseases are found and also new diseases are discovered,new discoveries are made in various fields, at the same time however newproblems are arising. Man in every era has depended on some formof tool to help him to his tasks whatever they may be, a tool to make thingseasier. This tool is technology; technology does not have to be the modernthoughts of computers. Technology is “the science of technical processesin a wide, though related field of knowledge.
” That is the definition givenby The New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language. So technology can be anything as long as it helps us advance. It can beanything like a plough to help a farmer, a television to help the mediaand the telephone to help us communicate. The latest technology of the20th Century is the Internet and it has placed a great mark on our society. It is the new “place to be” where business can advance, people can interactworldwide at the click of a mouse and this has revolutionarily changedthe world. In the world of the Internet there are millions of members worldwideand that means it is a very profitable arena.
In an area where there ismoney there are criminals and that is where the modern criminals of theworld are behind computer screens. They may be credible individuals insociety and they could also be credible corporations and organizationsthat are finding a quick way to make money and by doing this they are breakingethical rules of society (even though it is hard to determine the ethicsof the internet) and one of these crimes is the violation of the privacyof others. I have logged on to the internet and havefelt safe, like anyone should that logs on to the net, that I am the onlyone viewing my mail or cruising the net, I feel like I am the only onethat knows where I have been and that no one is tracking me. After allthe things I have just mentioned only happen in the movies, they are Enemyof the State type of things, and it could not possibly happen to you amI right? Wrong. By holding this thought one is including themselves “ina large group of consumers, world-wide, who are unaware of the multitudeof information they are placing on the World Wide Web, simply by usingit as it was designed to be used.
All it takes is a visit to any site toplace personal information about yourself on the internet. (Buffalo University). The best way, at least for me, to understandthe Internet is not to view it as a one way street but instead as a two-wayroad. The one way view of the internet is that it provides us with informationand entertainment, this is what many people use the internet for and thatis the one way view they maintain though it is not wrong there is moreto it.
That is where the two way view comes into effect while an individualis surfing the net the people that maintain the web sites are also gettinginformation that information is on you. It is a two way street becauseyou get what you want and they get what they want, which side gets themore information is very debatable, solely on the premise on how much youtreasure your privacy. It is disturbing to know that one can betracked all over the World Wide Web just from their mouse clicks. Thismay be happening to many of us, our browser alone gives as away simply.
Just from our browser someone who wants to can find out could probablyfind out “which computer you are coming from, what software and hardwareyou are using, details of the link you clicked on, and possibly even youremail address (junkbusters. com)” This is a lot of information about usthat we may not want out there. Our browser is giving all this informationout through cookies. “A cookie is a unique identifier that a web serverplaces on your computer: a serial number for you personally that can beused to retrieve your records from their databases.
It’s usually a stringof random looking letters long enough to be unique (www. junkbusters. com). “This is a very bad thing that destroys the founding of privacy if you cannotsurf the Internet without half the consumer-retailing world knowing about,that is a very horrible thought. When I view a particular page that is ofinterest to me and I want to some more information on the products theyoffer I usually fill an on-site registration form, along with me so domany users of the Internet.
By providing the information to the companyI am under the assumption that they will send the information I need tome and that they are under an ethical code to respect my privacy. Wellin the world of the Internet, and in this day and age ethics might as wellbe a dream. The forms we fill online may ask for basic information likemy name, address, phone number and email address and maybe my personalinterests, however the sad part is that all this information is most likelybeing gathered for marketing purposes. It is often sold to other interestedparties willing to buy my information along with those of hundreds of others,so that they may push their products upon them.
There are companies emerging over theInternet that can get almost any piece of information on you that you holddear to your self. The Internet has unleashed a new beast, a beast thathas no name but that has no respect for privacy. If tomorrow morning theUnited States Postal Service announced that all mail had to be sent ina clear envelope there would be a huge ruckus. That would involveeveryone from a custodian to the president of a major organization; thisis because we all have something that is private to us that we do not wantstrangers to know about.
What is very disturbing is “when it comes to protectingyour privacy, banks and brokerage firms tend to squirm. By law they mustrecord Social Security number, the marker that can unlock the data in alltoo many other accounts (Forbes pg. 187). ” If your money isnot safe, if one knows how much money you have in this society then youare at a disadvantage. In this society I feel every thing is measured bythe contents of your bank account, to achieve the dream many work hoursand hours upon end to make ends meet and to have all their labors exposedto the whole world can be a very painful thing.
While researching this paper I came acrossan interesting article done by MSNBC it was about a man named Glen Robertswho lives in Oil City which is in northwestern Pennsylvania. Mr. Robertshad obtained through legal means, thanks to the Internet and to be morespecific the electronic Congressional Record to obtain the social securitynumbers of prominent members of the United States military. He then displayedthese numbers on his site to display to the world how insecure the Internetwas. “This is not some secret military document that someone hacked into,and these are not the Pentagon Papers,” Roberts said. “This is informationthat is put into public libraries all across the country with taxpayerdollars” (www.
msnbc. com). After reading the article on he MSNBC websiteI searched for Mr. Glen Roberts page and found it. From there I was ableto discover the social security numbers of many prominent members in oursociety including.
General Colin L. Powell who’s social security numberis 113-28-4024 and Bill Gates who’s social security number is 539-60-5125. These were all available from his Internet address: http://www. glr. com/mediaAfter viewing the contents of this websiteI thought to my self if the numbers of prominent members of society areopenly available to many then what would prevent the numbers of normalcivilians from being available. Many experts agree that once you have thesocial security number of an individual you have the key to their wholelife.
No safeguards are being taken to adequately protected. The Internetin my opinion is a young domain and many are taking advantage of it bybreaking strict moral and ethical values. To prove my point on how insecure the internetwas and how the privacy of others were not being protected I took the libertyof finding out what information I could find on Mark Preut. He is my Debatecoach and also American Government teacher, in one minute (I timed myself)I came up with was his address, phone number, map of the town he livedin. If I had looked on further I know I could have found more but thenI would be contradicting my self on the matter of privacy. The Internet is a dangerous place we needto be careful.
It is understandable that the founding fathers did not takeinto account the invention of the Internet let alone the computer. Howeverthey did believe in a sense of privacy that sense of privacy has not beenapplied by this government. To that matter it has not been applied to anyother government which has control over events on the World Wide Web. Itis a shame there is no little or no privacy in this new world created byman, the world known as cyberspace.
