Internet Privacy-
The Internet raises two kinds of privacy issues. First, the posting and aggregation of personal information on Internet websites sometimes violates privacy. Websites on the Internet contain all sorts of personal information that is made publicly available, often without the bearer’s explicit consent. They may contain, for instance, one’s phone number and address, archived bulletin board messages from years past, information about one’s membership of organizations, online magazines and newspapers in which one is mentioned, online databases with public records, pictures and video clips featuring oneself, etc. Using search engines, this information can easily be located and be used to create elaborate composite records about persons. Should there be limits to this? When should someone’s consent be asked when his personal information is posted on the web, or when such information is used for specific purposes?
A second type of privacy issue involves the online monitoring of internet users. Their connection to the internet may be used by third parties to collect information about them, in a way that is often invisible to them. Online privacy risks include cookies (small data packets placed by servers on one’s computer for user authentication, user tracking, and maintaining
user-specific information), profiling or tracking (recording the browsing behavior of users), and spyware (computer programs that maliciously collect information from a user’s computer system or about a user’s browser behavior and send this information over the internet to a third party). In addition, private e-mail and data traffic may be intercepted at various points, for instance by employers, internet service providers, and government agencies. When do such actions violate privacy, and what should be done to protect internet privacy?
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