Online privacy, what is it? Is it where people think they are searching the web without being invaded, by seekers of information? Or do they actually surf the web without being spied on for information? I for one say that online privacy does not exist, for even when you are shopping online for gifts or personal items, your Facebook page the next day has an advertisement for the same things you were looking for. You can read about someone who had this same experience here, and how they talk about online marketing, which could be a form of invading your online privacy.
To me online privacy is up to you the person surfing the web, for most of the time we put information out there without even realizing it until it is too late. Here are a few websites that say how to protect you online privacy; Electronic Frontier Foundation, Media Awareness Network, and Electronic Privacy Information Center.
Here are a few tips of what the EFF says to protect,
- Do not reveal personal information inadvertently – set up your browsers to not provide your real name and e-mail addresses, while you search the web.
- Turn on cookie noticies in your web browser, and use cookie management software
- Keep a "clean" e-mail address
- Do not reply to spammers for any reason
- Examine privacy policies and seals
The Media Awareness Network has mostly the same tips and then some where you can read them at Media Awareness Network.
At the Electronic Privacy Information Center site they show snoop proof email application, among others such as cookie busters, HTML Filters, and EMAIL and File Provacy, just to name a few they have there.
To me online privacy is non existent, also I have asked some people I know and they have the same opinions and some of them even use these programs to protect themselves. Do the programs work? That is the question that must be answered. the majority of the people I spoke to say yes but a few said no. So is it safe to say that these programs work at protecting our online privacy?
Dabz, I agree with you, there is no such thing as online privacy in today's online world. This is why I am all for the "Do Not Track" feature that has been reccomended by the FTC for consumer protection. Chances are that we won't see anything like it though. Mozilla, the maker of Firefox, caved on a similar project because of pressure there were going to get from their marketing partners.
ReplyDeleteI agree with you and Jeff concerning this topic. There really is no such thing as online privacy, and I don't know why users are blind and don't understand that. I try to police my online activity as much as possible by deleting cookies as frequently as possible. Although, the proposed do not track button is small remedy, it is a move in the right direction in protecting online consumers. I have also installed a 3rd party Facebook application blocker on my Chrome web browser because I know that Facebook leaks out user information to many websites. However, I'm still a little skeptical about the effectiveness of the tool because it comes from a 3rd party developer I need to place my trust in. I encourage you to install this browser extension however, seeming that we are frequent users of Facebook, and are concerned about our online privacy. The link can be found on my blog.
ReplyDelete-Derrick
http://imktg-thenetimpact.blogspot.com/2010/12/opt-in-to-effective-marketing.html