Discussion Board: Modern Information Society
Discussion Board: Modern Information Society
Introduction
The advent of technological breaktrhoughs allowed many Americans to experience the power of information technology applied on almost all aspects of daily living. From the early days of text messaging to today’s internet-based social media interaction, working from home, and online shopping. However, these internet-based activities also encompasses several threats despite the favorable advantage in terms of convenience. In this discussion, these threats will be highlighted by examining how users are concerned about individual privacy in online activities. In addition, the dicussion will also determine how customer’s personal data are being collected and protected by companies. Most importantly, steps in maintaining individual privacy will be examined including the ways to determine how individual privacy has been violated.
Concerns about individual privacy in online activities
There are several concerns about privacy breach while engaged in online activities, but among the biggest threats, comes from external services scanning the individual information of users in the name of cybersecurity (Riofrio, 2013). In some cases, cookie proliferation becomes a threat when cookie software agents keep track of the browsing habits including personal informaton entered into any of the visited sites that any organization can collect and use in ways that the user may not know about. Another major concern about privacy in online activities is the use of cloud storage. When using web-based email service or keeping files in Google drive may seem convenient for anyone who wish to keep their devices free of residual files, but the real deal behind cloud usage is that the information entered into the cloud servers no longer belongs to the users, but owned by data servers. Digital files and personal information entered into the cloud does not have the same protection by the law as documents in ink and paper.
How personal data are collected and protected by companies
Companies operating a website uses it as a tool to collect information data that could be proliferated for marketing and communication related activities. However, an individual entering their address, phone number, or credit card number in any of the commercial websties do not have the idea how far the entered information can go as far as proliferation is concern (Conroy, Nanda, and Narula, 2014). Simple activities over the internet such as checking email or even clicking on an advertisement banner in your favorite website is enough for the third party organizations to capture pertinent data about the user. Online shopping companies and online banking is among the many activities online that has the strongest layer after layer of protection. Encypting and multi-layer authetication process protects the information provided by customers from snoopers and hackers.
Steps in maintaining individual privacy
Despite the described vulnerabilities, any one can still manage to maintain parivacy while engaged in online activities. In social networks, maintaining privacy can be done by going to the privacy settings and lock it down to hide personal information. In facebook, personal profiles may show phone number, birthday, place of residence, and email address. It can be hidden from plain view by enabling the “ask me” function, which allows the user to show it only to trusted individuals. In terms of browsing, the most important step to complete privacy is to send a “do not track request”, which is alos available in the browser settings. In additio, browsing in privacy mode would be helpful to protect information particularly when using a public computer. Connecting to a proxy server is also considered as an added layer of protectin while online. It is also important to note while browsing that the term HTTPS is the most secured web location as it has an embedded security function and privacy certificate.
How to know individual privacy has been violated
For an individual to determine whether his online privacy has been violated can be difficult because in some cases, the user would only find out that there has been a violation of privacy after the consequences has been realized. The most common cases of privacy breach is identity theft. In such cases, when the individual information has been compromised, the most important step to consider is to lock down the online account and remove all history from devices and from the computer. Preventive measures can be done as well in order to avoid breach and primarily to determine if ther has been a violation. For example, an email or text alert can be a useful method to get alerts if there was a breach attempt. Monitoring can be also used for the same preventive purposes. For instance, the online banking service options will allow the users to add extra layer of authentication. To know if there was a violation, there would be evidence of possible changes in the stored data and instances of unexplained and suspicious activities in the account despite not having any activity.
Conclusion
Online activiites can be both engaging, interesting, and fun, but it poses a consequantial threat to users if the personal virtual space has been breached. The most important consideration in this case is to ensure that security measures is being udnertaken and having the knowledge to know if there was any violation to privacy can prevent future threats.
References
Conroy, P., Nanda, R., & Narula, A. (2014). Building consumer trust: Protecting personal data in the consumer product industry. Deloitte University Press. Retrieved 24 February 2016, from http://dupress.com/articles/consumer-data-privacy-strategies/
Riofrio, M. (2013). The 5 biggest online privacy threats of 2013. PCWorld. Retrieved 24 February 2016, from http://www.pcworld.com/article/2031908/the-5-biggest-online-privacy-threats-of-2013.html
