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INTERNET PRIVACY TODAY -- WHAT ARE THE ISSUES?
THE NET WAS NOT
DESIGNED FOR PRIVACY
When you surf the web, send email, chat, and post to newsgroups, your
computer leaves behind a digital footprint called an IP address. Footprints
in the real world fade with time, but in Cyberspace, your IP address is
recorded alongside the pages you accessed, the contents of your chat sessions,
and even email you thought was long gone. The Internet's 35,000 newsgroups
are now fully archived and searchable online as well.
Combined with the tidbits of personal information you reveal casually online - your name and address for instance - your computer's IP address can be linked to your real-life identity. Even if you provide false information to website registration forms, or use password-protected web services, your personal information can easily be tracked down. Remember, the Internet was designed for computers to exchange information, not hide it.
YOUR LIFE IS AN
OPEN BOOK
Internet traffic, such as email messages, are just like postcards. Anyone
with a little technical know-how can intercept and read your messages,
and discover who you're communicating with and what you're saying. The
same is true with online chat rooms. It "feels" like you're anonymous,
because you might use an online alias, not your real name. And when your
words scroll off the screen, it's like they're gone forever. This couldn't
be further from the truth. Your IP address is recorded alongside your
chat conversations, which are stored in company database logs. You
can never take back what you say online.
YOU ARE THE TARGET
(MARKET)
Where you live, what you earn, where you went to school, your religious
beliefs, who you voted for, your hobbies, your credit history, your marital
status… Marketers want to know as much as they can about you, to identify
what kind of car you might buy or what your next music purchase might
be. The Internet is the perfect tool for marketers looking to compile
detailed personal profiles of millions of consumers. Why? Because in the
age of cheap data storage, most companies record every mouseclick. It
only takes a few tidbits of personal data to connect your computer's IP
address with your online communications, and all kinds of detailed information
about you can be recorded, tracked, aggregated, bought and sold. If
you think this sounds far-fetched, think again. This kind of surveillance
is happening now.
BIG BUSINESS IS
WATCHING
Many of the web's most popular sites display banner-type advertising,
almost always provided by one of several huge web marketing companies.
Whenever your computer accesses a page with one of their ads, they take
a snapshot of what you were looking at and put it in your profile. This
is usually accomplished using "cookies" (little pieces of identifying
data stored on your computer's hard drive) to recognize you if you visit
any other partner sites.
So next time you use a major search engine to look for a book, don't be
surprised to find an ad for amazon.com at the top of the page, and to
get book club offers in the mail. For a long time. When a website asks
for your birthday in order to display your horoscope, think about what
you're revealing: linked to other info like your postal code (which you
may have given out a few clicks back for the local weather report), and
your IP address, your identity is easily determined. Suddenly all your
habits and opinions are available to the highest bidder.
SO WHAT IF THEY
EAVESDROP?
You're a good person with nothing to hide, so why should you care if your
personal information and communications are vulnerable? Lots of reasons.
Beyond the annoyance of being bombarded with marketing messages, companies,
individuals and others may have a stake in learning about you.
Here are some examples of recent privacy breaches that can happen to you*:
- Bob's father has
just been diagnosed with cancer. In an effort to learn more about it,
Bob visits cancer websites and posts several inquiries to a discussion
group. A month later, Bob's insurance company informs him that he is
no longer eligible for a certain rate given his "condition".
- Mary is in the
final stages of the interview process for a big job. Her employer decides
to search the newsgroup archives using her name, and discovers that
several years ago, she was keen on spreading her controversial political
opinions. Mary is quietly passed over in favor of a less outspoken candidate.
- Kayla gets a phone
call from her credit card company: Did she purchase top-of-the-line
stereo equipment and a Mercedes on the same day? The police eventually
catch up to the thief, who gained access to her card number by exploiting
a flaw in the shopping cart software at a popular online flower shop.
- Rennie loves to
chat online with other 12-year-olds. She knows she's not supposed to
give out her address or phone number online, so she doesn't think anything
of telling her chat friends that she's home by herself everyday from
4 to 6. Luckily, her Internet Service Provider refused to give out her
parents' billing address to the man who called posing as her father.
- Jean and Mario are visiting the capital of a developing country, and are shocked at the police brutality they witness during a demonstration. They post accounts of what they saw to a human rights website, and are promptly arrested.
WHO CAN YOU TRUST?
Many companies are taking advantage of consumer concern for online privacy
by providing so-called "identity and relationship management" services.
They ask you to fill out forms with ALL your personal information, and
then hand out pieces of it to partner merchant sites. Only you have no
control over what happens to your personal info once it's been transferred
to the merchant. This is the opposite of privacy.
WHAT YOU CAN DO:
We recognize that our customers are concerned about online privacy. To address these concerns, we have affiliated with Zero-Knowledge Systems, makers of Freedom -- an Internet privacy software solution that provides complete control over your personal information.
Freedom is easy-to-use software that works alongside your existing Internet applications to ensure that all your Internet traffic remains completely private. No one can learn your personal information unless you want them to - not even Zero-Knowledge.
Get Freedom and get:
- Private web browsing
- Private email
- Private newsgroups
- Private chat
- Private telnet
- Unsolicited commercial email (spam) filters
- CookieJars™, a cookie management system
- Digital certificates, the electronic version of your signature
To learn more about what Freedom can do for you and how it works, please click on the link below:
FREEDOM - ULTIMATE PRIVACY PROTECTION
To download Freedom now, please click on the link below:
Click
here to protect your privacy with Freedom.
