Privacy on the internet today has somewhat been reduced by the barrage of social media sites and other sites which demand our personal details and give us little in return. This is because we have come to place much more trust in the internet, and believe we are secure whilst giving much of our personal information away and sometimes, without even noticing. But should this really be happening? What are the consequences to just handing out our information for millions to see? A prime example of this would be to take a look at some social media sites.
For instance the popular site ‘Facebook’ has racked up over 500 million users in 2010 alone, it allows users to create their own profiles and asks them information about themselves which people can see. Although Facebook has privacy settings so you can choose to not let everyone see your page it has applications that suggest friends to you, based upon your interests and how many mutual friends you have in common. In fact, millions of people update their statuses regularly and even let people know their location. People trust sites like these without thinking of the dangers of publicly displaying much of their information. In some cases, you can learn a lot about a person, where they live, where they work etc. without even ever talking to them. Would you go out and tell random people all of your personal information? It can be somewhat dangerous as you can’t know who is viewing your profile. This can be commonly found on similar sites such as Myspace and Bebo (Although they are somewhat dated.). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ygp9juWDIiI
Another danger of sites like these, are the sites themselves. Upon signing up to sites like Facebook, Twitter or other sites which includes online shopping there are pages and pages of terms and conditions that would take hours to read so many of us choose the easy option and immediately press the ‘agree’ button. This means we could be signing up for anything, people have tried to sue companies like Facebook for using their personal information for advertisement schemes although they state it is included in the terms and conditions. This is just scratching the surface, Facebook keeps every single bit of user information that is updated including status updates and photos, being able to use these how they see fit. It is not just other users of the site people must be cautious; it may also be the site itself. At one time or another we have all heard of online shopping transactions going wrong and the company taking all of the consumers money, this can still happen today but many people seem ignorant to the matter and will easily hand out personal information as well as their bank details.
A common argument for those against such sites is that it is a breach of our basic human rights, our right to privacy and in breach of the online data protection act. Although these arguments can be quickly overlooked as they still agree to the sites’ terms and conditions. The best way to be sure your information is not being stolen would be to just not sign up to websites who ask for your information but today it is sites like these are the most popular and are ruling the online world.
Another common but dated issue with privacy are online scams such as emails naming you the ‘winner’ of an unknown competition, they may ask you to give out your information such as your address and bank details so they can steal your money. These are much easier to spot mainly as they can be so obvious and have been around for a while. But this can also happen in online shopping; unaware a customer can order items and give out personal bank details in return. Usually sites will have a secure log in system in which you have a safe account to shop with; this will be on official shopping sites.
It seems that today we give out much more personal information than ever before online; our online privacy is becoming more of an issue. Many of us have the mindset that online scams, fraud or robbery won’t happen to us. But even if we only use secure sites we still have to be careful who we give out our information to, and if we really need to give out this information. Also if people only post on social media sites pictures and statuses they wouldn’t mind anyone seeing this wouldn’t stop breaches of our privacy, but if it ever did
happen then it would not be such problem to us.
In conclusion privacy on the internet today is an issue, we all seem to agree to terms and conditions before reading them, and we are using more recent sites that can breach our privacy. It is our right to have our own privacy and should be entitled to it online. However, it is our choice to sign up to sites such as Facebook and our choice whether or not to read the terms and conditions, although if there are sites that pass on our information for others to see, it seems to be in direct violation of our human rights and the data protection act.
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