Introduction
The world is rapidly experiencing changes in modes of communication. These rapid changes have been brought about by the invention and use of computers and, more specifically, the internet. The use of the internet amongst young people has increased to an alarming rate. There is a need to formulate laws that will govern the content of materials being accessed by these young people. With the increased use of the internet, many people have become worried about their privacy when using the internet. This is because there are other individuals who have managed to access accounts or confidential information from others. As a result, scholars and other stakeholders, like the government security agencies, have tried to formulate laws that will curb this menace to no success. This has mainly been attributed to the inability to locate the faces behind these illegal activities. For example, it is possible for an individual in Australia to hack into a website belonging to an American company. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to bring these culprits to justice.
Literature review on web privacy
A number of people have ventilated on this issue, although some of the recommendations given are proving to be unworkable. For example, according to Garfinkel (2002), web privacy relates to the individual’s prerogative. This means that it touches on the storage, as well as providing personal information of oneself through the internet. He has observed that many people, and especially the youth, have a tendency to share their information with others without knowing the real danger they are exposing themselves to. In addition, he has noted that the government and other stakeholders are not in a position to control or regulate the use of the internet in their area. However, he contends that the government can only make sure that its people have limited access to certain websites in an attempt to control and regulate web privacy. For instance, in the recent Arab uprising in the Middle East and North Africa, the governments tried as much as they could to block social sites such as Facebook and Twitter because they were used by the protesters to influence others.
On the other hand, Hamilton (2002) has argued that web privacy is today proving to be out of control. These are the same sentiments shared by Garfinkel (2002) because people tampering with other individuals’ content on the web cannot be tracked easily. He says that the governments should come together and establish a special group of its security who will communicate with others in case they arrest suspected computer hackers. In addition, he has observed that people who post their personal information on the web sites should make sure that adequate measures have been put in place to make sure that no one can tamper with such information. He has claimed that many victims of this kind of crime have claimed that their personal information on the website had not been properly secured. He says that if people embrace these kind of measures, the chances of having a secure and safe internet is possible. This opinion is shared by Connolly (2004), who has further stated that some of those individuals tasked with ensuring that personal information is safe on the internet to have been accused of sabotaging their clients by taking advantage of being the ones using their ability to access and maintain such information. As a result, he says that clients should be the ones having the passwords used in protecting the information other than the specialists who helped in posting such information on the web site.
According to Delta (2010), in order to maintain privacy, individuals are supposed to select which type of personal information should be made available to a particular web site. In addition, he has advised that people need to be informed about the profile information that is of importance to a particular web site as well. This is because it will allow such people to choose who may use this information, for what purposes, and under what circumstances. This may go a step further to include issues such as having the sole right to publish and update records and to withdraw usage permissions. In addition, information stored locally on a user’s machine may be modified in a way that it will be kept safe from unauthorized usage by other people having access to the web site.
What’s happening now?
In the 21st century, the number of people using the internet has increased rapidly. On the same note, the number of web sites that allow people to interact has gone up at an alarming rate. For example, Facebook and Twitter have become the most commonly visited sites, especially by young people in their twenties. What these sites do is to allow people to post their personal information so that they can be used by others as they search them to become their friends on Facebook in particular. There is also an option in these sites where people have a chance to poke others whom they have never met. Therefore, these people, in many instances, are strangers.
Once the victim accepts the request, he or she has a chance of viewing the personal information in another person’s profile. It has been observed that such strange individuals may decide to copy some of the private information and share it with their friends who may be as well unknown to the victim. Such may include personal pictures. As a result, individual privacy on the web will have been affected. In addition, there have been instances where pictures of certain prominent personalities have been edited. As a result, this has made such people bear a negative reputation, especially from those not well versed with such kind of picture editing technology. Therefore, it is important to know and keep track of the people who are in a position to access an individual’s profile. This, as earlier stated, can only be possible by accepting requests from people known. This is a very good and effective way of keeping imposters at bay. Hence the web privacy will not have been compromised.
Recent abuses and improvements
On social sites such as Facebook, for instance, many people have been forbidden or suspended from continuing use of their accounts after many people reported receiving friend requests from people they do not know. As a result, the suspended people may have learned a big lesson and therefore, may only send such friendship requests to people they know and are sure that they, in turn, know them. Due to increased use of celebrities’ names, some of the web site owners have forbidden the use of such names so that they can protect the privacy of such individuals in the society and the world at large.
Web site policies on privacy protections
According to Hamilton (2002), many companies have privacy policies that are aimed at protecting their internet users and also increasing their confidence as they post their personal information on the web site. He says that this is the most effective and efficient way of making sure that a web site receives more people at any one given point. He contends that once a consumer is guaranteed that the information provided will not be disclosed to a third party, then he or she is likely to post a lot of personal information that he or she feels is relevant to the requirements of such a web site.
This paper has looked at the privacy policy given by the 24/7 Real Media Company. According to the company’s privacy policy, they do not ask for the online user’s personally identifiable information, such as the names of individuals and their addresses. The company’s main concern is its customers to abide by the applicable laws that govern online privacy and encourage them to publish privacy policies that inform others about how the information they are gathering is being utilized. The company requires their partner web sites that are part of the Global Web Alliance to inform users about their privacy and information collection practices via their privacy policies, including whether or not the web site is using their technology. They also advise their customers on how they can delete the information they have provided to the company’s website. This company has further encouraged its customers to frequently read the privacy policies of the other websites that they visit to understand issues relating to online privacy.
Current proposals for government regulations
Although web privacy has for over the years, proved to be an enormous task for the government and other stakeholders, there have been attempts to try and regulate web privacy in many countries. According to Delta (2010), the United States of America does not have a firm law that governs online privacy. On the other hand, he has observed that Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom legislatures have passed stiff laws on privacy laws. He says that in the United States of America, the Federal Trade Commission is usually tasked with ensuring people’s privacy is observed. However, he has noted that this commission can take action only if privacy-violating action is deemed unfair to the victim. He has said that the main issue in trying to formulate federal privacy legislation was to try and curb the spread of this vice that has continued to affect many people in the world today. In addition, he claims that privacy laws are long overdue because there are some companies that have been gathering information from people and using such information to make money at the expense of such people.
Conclusion
Although the internet has brought more good than bad in our society today, there is a need to address its disadvantages so that it can continue being a useful tool in the life of mankind. Therefore, it is important to make sure that those people who infringe on other individual privacy are brought to justice and accorded stiff penalties. This move will go a long way in deterring others who want to engage in such activities in
the future.
Reference List
Connolly, J., 2004. Law of internet security and privacy. New York: Aspen Publishers, Inc.
Delta, G., 2010. Law of the Internet, Volume 1. New York: Aspen Publishers, Inc.
Garfinkel, S., 2002. Web security, privacy and commerce. New York: O’Reilly Media, Inc.
Hamilton, T., 2002. The privacy payoff: how successful businesses build customer trust. Philadelphia: McGraw- Hill Ryerson.