Privacy

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The word privacy is the quality or condition of being secluded from the presence or view of others. Everybody has things that they want to keep to themselves; we all have a need for privacy. In terms of the internet what we want to keep private is our identity. One might ask, "why do I care if anybody knows who I am? I don't have anything to hide". Although we might think that our personal identity is not important to others, because it is not important to most people, there are people out there that are out to get the identity of anybody that they can find. Why? There are different levels of things that can be done with your identity. First, on a smaller level, with certain information you can receive junk mail and email, and you can receive annoying pop ups on your computer. Second, on a more serious level, with the identity of a certain person a perpetrator can access different aspects of that person's life. For example, they can obtain information like their credit card number, bank account, and social security number. With this information these "robbers" can do many things that are to their benefit and to your disadvantage. To protect ourselves and our identity, we need to become concerned about our identity on the internet.

There are many precautions that can be taken to help protect ones privacy. One problem that many people have is that they connect to the internet with a high speed connection (ex ­ cable or DSL) and their computer is always connected to the internet. This constant connection makes your computer susceptible to hackers that can get in and mess around with your computer. An easy suggestion to this problem is to get some sort of firewall system that manages what comes in and out of your computer through the internet connection to limit those trying to get in.

Another way that you can get pop ups and unwanted advertising is through cookies. When you visit a website it stores a cookie on your computer so that when you return to that site it will know that you have already been there. Cookies for the most part are harmless, but you always come across those exceptions that use this information wrongfully. There are also third party cookies that communicate data about you to an advertising clearing house who shares that data with other online marketers. To fix this problem you can go to the options on your web browser and delete cookies as well as turn off or adjust your cookies settings. If you turn off your cookies you will not be able to use cookies even with your trusted websites, to fix this you can set a security level for your trusted websites and block others.

Many people choose their passwords slothfully, which makes it easy for others to figure out what it is. If you have an obvious password, or if you use the same password for everything, then a hacker can easily figure it out. It is a good idea to come up with an original password, with numbers and punctuation mixed in, and use variations of this password. Privacy Rights Clearinghouse suggested using the first or last letters of a line of poetry. For example, "Mary had a little lamb" becomes m*ha2ll or y!dae5b. In this case you only have to remember the phrase "Mary had a little lamb" and use these variations and others for different accounts.

You need to be extra careful whenever you are using sensitive information on the internet such as your credit card number, bank account, or social security number. Don't give this information out to just anybody, make sure that you are using a secure site. There are ways to make sure the site you are using is secure. One way is to look for the unbroken padlock at the bottom right hand corner of your screen. Another way to make sure it is a secure site is to look for the s on the end of http (https ­ secure).

If you are a victim to theft online it is important that you act quickly to minimize damages. These online "crooks" can be caught but its not easy, so it is important to act as quickly as possible. One thing that can be done is contact the three major credit bureaus about your credit. It would also be wise to contact your creditors and your bank regarding your accounts and credit/atm cards.

The internet makes a lot of things possible, good and bad. It is important to be careful with your privacy to eliminate the bad as much as possible


Consumer Privacy Guide. Consumer Privacy Guide Top Steps . February 19, 2005. http://www.consumerprivacyguide.org/topthings/

Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. Privacy in Cyberspace . February 19, 2005. http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm

Attorney General Nevada Department of Justice. Internet Privacy Policy . February 19, 20005. http://ag.state.nv.us/privacy.htm