UTEP Undergraduate
Angel Kaine Odriozola
Literature Review
Introduction
As the Internet has developed over time, our privacy has been disintegrating in different respects. The sole purpose of the invention of the internet in the late 1960s was to link computers together, so as to have them all communicate with each other via electronic data transmissions or e-mails. In 1990, the Advanced Research Project Agency Network (ARPANET) adopted Tim Berners’s Web invention onto the internet and it is when the internet went public. (Andrews, 2013) Today, vast amounts of all types of information can be found on the internet and social media websites are used every day by millions of people. A variety of different online sources have been used to gather information that will help provide a better understanding of online privacy. In this literature review, the different aspects related to internet privacy and how it has changed over time will be discussed as well as how the general public is vulnerable when using the internet, how privacy issues impact the lives of teenagers and adults, and the potential policies that may help protect the future of the people’s online privacy.
What are Internet Privacy Concerns (IPC) and how have they evolved over time?
According to the author, “Internet Privacy Concerns (IPC) is defined as the degree to which an Internet user is concerned about websites’ practices related to the collection and use of his or her personal information”. (W. Hong, 2013) Internet privacy today is becoming more of a concern as it may not have been so a decade ago. People are vulnerable to have their information tracked on the internet and the scary part is that they are not aware because they cannot see that it is being done. There is no such thing as secrets on the internet at all. (Falkvinge, 2013) It is also true that in the end, the responsibility of privacy falls on the individual to protect their privacy. This is the concern that is growing as we progress farther into the 21st century.
How is it possible for the people to protect their information online? Surely everything they message through private message and emails is private to only them right? The data that is shared online is not private at all (Sullivan, NBC News). If someone is viewing their private e-mail from a computer that belongs to the company that they happen to work for, then chances are that the e-mails are also being viewed by them. Bob Sullivan from NBC News says, “INTERNET PRIVACY is a murky, complicated issue full of conflicting interests, misinformation, innuendo and technology snafus” (Sullivan, NBC News). Sullivan also describes rising concerns of criminal hackers online who break into websites for personal gain. All of these issues have the people concerned because millions of people use the internet.
How do companies gather information about clients online?
It is amazing to this day how far technology has come. The internet in particular has had an outstanding change in the decade. The percentage of users has skyrocketed in such a short amount of time. The internet has been improved to a speed ten times faster. We are able to surf the internet at our own pace and at our own pleasure. When someone surfs the internet
Figure 1
This photo depicts what the internet is today.
http://news.discovery.com/tech/is-the-internet-destroying-privacy.htm
they are not surfing the internet by themselves. There is always someone watching and that is what figure 1 above depicts. Generally, what happens is that online tracking companies gather information about a single person from websites that have that information and with that data a profile is created which is then sold to other companies. The public has no control over this and even new technology has been developed to help them track easier.
There is also not just one tracking company out there. There is many and some even work together to make it more beneficial for their companies to profit or advertise. Individual’s can literally track and find other individuals if needed. In other cases there have been companies accused of using technology that would track the internet users. Tracking has been seen not only in the internet but on mobile phones. Today, police can track people down and hack into laptops and personal information without the consent of the individual because third parties are used to do this type of work from the police. It’s a privacy invasion that should not be happening.
What privacies are guaranteed to Internet users?
According to the author Bob Sullivan, “The Net was born as an open research tool, and thus was never designed to allow privacy or security” (Sullivan, NBC News). Looking at it from a different perspective people can argue that the internet was really never meant to offer any privacy to the public. On the contrary Falkvinge (2013), endorses “one key observation of why we need privacy: Because we have a fundamental need to keep some things to ourselves”. (Falkvinge, 2013) This is the opposite perspective in which the internet should provide some sort of privacy, or guarantee some privacy when it is being used. People need to be careful with what they share on the internet and on social media especially because that is what is mostly used to create a profiles on everyone by companies who then store it in online databases. There are also hackers out there who can hack companies who hold clients’ information. Companies like banks in particular who have been hacked before exposing a lot of other people’s account numbers. Such was the case in part of Russia and China just last year. (Nuevo Dia, 2015)
Considering all of these dangers that anyone can potentially become a victim of is important because one might become a victim of identity theft. One might think that they have very little chance of being a victim of identity theft but there is a chance. The last thing I expected was for a colleague of mine to be a victim of identity theft but he was. He had said his social security number had been used to have a mortgage on a house. This had happened over the internet. Ultimately I do not believe that there are any privacies guaranteed to the internet user. Everyone will be potentially at risk when using the internet if they are not careful with what they share on the websites they visit.
What protections should be available to internet users to help protect their privacy?
At this point, the progress of the internet has been so immense it is practically impossible to provide any sort of privacy in the near future for the next generation of users and also for the new users who have yet no access to the internet since only 33% of the population has access or uses the internet (Pam Dyer). “As Scott McNealy of Sun Microsystems once famously declared: "You already have zero privacy. Get over it." Countless books and articles have heralded the "end," "death" and "destruction" of privacy.”(Solove, 2008) This statement is powerful and suggests that the end of privacy on the internet has indeed arrived. There have been stringent laws that have been enacted by congress. Unfortunately some have not been so successful. Solove acknowledges that “The closest U.S. privacy law comes to a legal doctrine akin to copyright is the appropriation tort, which prevents the use of someone else's name or likeness for financial benefit. Unfortunately, the law has developed in a way that is often ineffective against the type of privacy threats now cropping up” (Solove, 2008). Clearly there have been attempts to better provide online privacy protection but new threats that have emerged have made it difficult to continue countering online privacy invasion. Other laws have been enacted as well such as the “Do Not Track Bill” which will benefit internet user giving them the right to not have their activities on the internet tracked. (EPIC) During recent times Facebook is one of the websites that has been accused of allowing their customers profiles browsing history to be collected. So there have been suits filed against Facebook. Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) has filed a FOIA request with the Federal Trade Commission, seeking records related to Facebook's decision to collect users' internet browsing history for advertising purposes. (EPIC) By this information it can be safely assumed that there have been pursuits to better the internet’s privacy, if there is any.
Conclusion
I believe that ultimately there is no privacy on the internet and there will not be for the time remaining. It is ultimately the responsibility of everyone to be-careful with they share on social media or the internet in general. There were four research question and the data obtained was from the internet on credible authors who have been in the field of online privacy for a while now. The public needs to remember that everyone is vulnerable when they are using the internet. Hopefully in the near future there are laws passed that will definitely aid the internet in privacy because what is going on with privacy invasion is ultimately not right. Everyone should have the right to surf the internet without being tracked every second of the time.
References
Conger, C. (2011). Is the Internet Destroying Privacy? Retrieved from
http://news.discovery.com/tech/is-the-internet-destroying-privacy.htm
Dyer, P. (ND). How the Internet has changed in the Last 10 Years [Info-graphic] Retrieved from
http://pamorama.net/2012/10/06/how-the-internet-has-changed-in-the-last-10-years-infographic/
Electronic Privacy Information Center. (ND). Online Tracking and Behavioral Profiling.
Retrieved from https://epic.org/privacy/consumer/online_tracking_and_behavioral.html
Falkvinge, R. (2013). Why Do We Need Privacy, Anyway? Retrieved from
https://www.privateinternetaccess.com/blog/2013/09/why-do-we-need-privacy-anyway/
Hong, W. (2013). Internet Privacy Concerns: An Integrated Conceptualization and Four Empirical Studies
Retrieved from http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2229627
Schneier, B. (2009). Should we have an Expectation of Online Privacy? Retrieved from
https://www.schneier.com/essays/archives/2009/05/should_we_have_an_ex.html
Solove, D. (2008). The End of Privacy? The End of Privacy? Vol .299, 100-106, Retrieved from
Sullivan, B. (ND). Online Privacy Fears are real. Retrieved from
http://www.nbcnews.com/id/3078835/t/online-privacy-fears-are-real/#.VwFT4qQrLie
