Privacy and Security Issues in the Use of the Internet as a Means of Communication - Coursework Example

Timetable Timeline Activity Week 1: Data collection - Review of books, journals and internet sites Week2: Developing a concept map Create an essay plan Week 3: Essay writing Week 4: Submit essay to a friend for comments Privacy and Security issues in the use of internet as a means of communication Introduction Over the course of time, the internet has gradually become a very vital tool for communication and has gained popularity due to its speed, accessibility and broad coverage. To date, more people are using the internet to carry out day-to-day activities such as business transactions, job searches, personal correspondence and research among many other activities. The internet has significantly promoted educational, social and economic advancement to its regular users. Even as more people continue to use the internet there is a growing concern with regards to privacy and security in the use of internet as a means of communication (Herman 2004).This essay seeks to explore ethical issues revolving around privacy and security issues in the use of internet as a means of communication. Moreover, this essay will give a balanced outlook on privacy and security issues associated with the use of the internet. Privacy issues As people continue to embrace the internet as a means of communication, privacy threats have become a major concern. Personal privacy when it comes to transmitting data and carrying out transaction through the internet is a very important. Internet users have a right to exercise control on personal information that they want to reveal and those that they want to conceal. Nevertheless, according to most experts in the field of internet security there is no privacy in the internet. There are companies that specialize in surveying the sites that users visit online, afterwards these companies use the user’s browsing history to get information and send advertisement to the user based on the information retrieved from their browsing history. This shows that the rights of internet users to exercise control on private information is infringed and compromised (Bradner, 2010).The Wall Street Journal printed an article on the lack of internet privacy. According to this article, advertisement companies and websites track children online more than adults. Research conducted by the Wall Street journal showed that the most visited kid-centric websites had averagely installed 30% more beacons, tracking cookies and other tracking technologies than the most visited adult’s sites. The journal also revealed that these websites openly sold user information obtained from these tracking practices. This article portrays a sad picture on the lack of concern that some companies have towards the privacy of their users (Bradner, 2010). A good example of how user’s privacy has been compromised by websites is depicted in the launch of the Beacon program. In 2007, Facebook initiated a Beacon program where rental records of users were exposed in public for friends to view without their consent. The launch of this program was considered repulsive since it was a breach of user privacy. Consequently, this program ensued to legal action against Facebook Inc (Nakashima, 2007). Compromising the rights of internet users to privacy can lead to various irreparable implications. For instance, users could be exposed to malicious acts such as stalking, exploitation, cyber crimes and the spread of spyware among many other threats. Moreover, users who feel that their rights to privacy are violated when using the internet for communication may use other alternatives means of communication. Currently, internet social networks have come up with measures geared towards protecting the privacy of its users. For instance, Facebook incorporates private settings that are available to all its registered users. The settings enable users to control information that they want to share and those that they want to conceal. Furthermore, privacy settings on Facebook enable users to block unwarranted people from seeing one’s profile pictures or videos. Users have also been enabled to choose their “friends” and limit access of their private information. Other social networks like MySpace and E-harmony have also incorporated privacy settings that enable users to safe guard their privacy. When providing personal information users have the prerogative of freely applying these privacy measures. In addition, as a result of the increasing trends of infringement of privacy rights of internet users various laws have been enacted to safeguard the rights of internet users to privacy. Security issues Internet technology confers obvious benefits and opportunities to individuals, institutions and businesses. Nevertheless, there exist various predatory elements that avert people from taking full advantage of the opportunities and benefits of using the internet as a means of communication. The use of the internet as a means of communication exposes users to risks of intrusion, fraud and computer crimes such as copyright infringement, financial theft, child grooming and hacking among many other crimes. Moreover, the use of the internet exposes users to problems of confidentiality especially intercepted or lost (Mann & Sutton, 1998). One of the key security risks of using the internet as a means of communication revolves around child grooming. Child grooming revolves around the deliberate act of manipulating and befriending children via the internet so as to create an emotional connection with them with the aim of lowering their inhibition so as to exploit them sexually. Perpetrators of this act find an apposite platform to conduct child pornography and prostitution through the various chat rooms and internet social network sites. In order to actualize these illicit acts some perpetrators pose as children in the internet and make arrangements of meeting their victims. Alternatively, the perpetrators may show the child pornographic images so as to initiate the grooming process and reinforce pornographic or prostitution behaviors. Facebook is one of the internet social site that has been accused of not putting into place precautionary measures aimed at averting child grooming. This is mainly because there have been several complaints and incidents on child grooming taking place through the site (Mathew, 2009). Children who use the internet as a means of communication can be exposed to sexual solicitation, bullying and harassment. Sexual solicitation of children is increasingly becoming a major problem around the world. In a recent case, nude pictures of girls enclosed with their mobile numbers were posted in the Orkut social site. There have also been reported cases of suicide due to increasing blackmail of minor victims with nude pictures (Mathew, 2009).Child pornography is another security concern when it comes to the use of the internet. The internet has radically enhanced the production and dissemination of child pornography this has in turn resulted to massive accessibility of child pornography. Internet fraud or scum is also another security concern associated with the use of the internet as a means of communication. Internet scum entails fraudulent solicitation to forthcoming victims to carry out fraudulent transactions with the aim of getting financial gains. Internet scums take place in various forms, for instance there are auction and retail scums, PayPal frauds, credit card frauds jobs and dating frauds among many other scums. Online job frauds are the commonly executed internet scums. For example this form of scums may involve luring of prospective victims via an emailed job offer from a fake organization. In most cases the fraudster construct fake website for their company in order to make their organization look legitimate. Subsequently, the fraudsters ask for the bank details or social security number of the victims as part of the recruitment process. With these details the fraudsters are able to monitor when large cash deposits are made in the users account, thereafter the fraudsters drain the victim’s account (FBI 2010). In order to safeguard the security of internet users various measures have been put in to place particularly in internet social networks. For example in 2003, MSN put into place chat room restrictions geared towards protecting children from pedophiles soliciting for sexual conversations. In 2005, Yahoo Inc banned chat rooms that were pedophilic in nature, Yahoo agreed to carryout procedures that ensure that such chat rooms are not operation. Over time, a number of software programs have been developed to warn and assist parents to identify child grooming practices. These software programs monitors online Instant messaging and chat room logs and indentifies any potentially suspicious activity. In addition, various states have enacted child pornography laws with severe penalties for offenders, usually these penalties include long term incarceration (Akdeniz, 2008) Conclusion As more people continue to embrace the internet as a means of communication, privacy and security risks have become a great concern. User’s privacy has been compromised by websites and companies that that track the in surveying sites that users visit online, afterwards these companies use the user’s browsing history to get information and send advertisement to the user based on the information retrieved from their browsing history. This indicates that the rights of internet users to exercise control on private information is infringed and compromised (Bradner, 2010). The infringement of user’s right to privacy exposes users to stalking and various forms of exploitation. Moreover, the use of the internet as a means of communication exposes users to security concerns such as risks of intrusion, fraud and computer crimes such as copyright infringement, financial theft, child pornography and grooming and hacking among many other crimes. In a bid to safeguard the privacy and security of internet users various privacy and security measures have been put into place by the government and internet social network sites. References Akdeniz, Y. (2008). Internet child pornography and the law: national and international responses. New York: Ashgate Publishing, p. 11. Bradner, S. (2010).Internet Privacy Conflicts, Retrieved on January 21, 2010 Herman, T. (2004). Ethics & Technology: Ethical Issues in an Age of Information and Communication Technology. Hoboken, NJ: John Wiley and Sons. Mann, D. & Sutton, M. (1998).Netcrime: More Change in the Organization of Thieving. British Journal of Criminology. 38:PP. 201-229 Mathew, L. (2009). “Online child safety from sexual abuse in India”. Journal of Information, Law and Technology 2009 (1):21. Nakashima, E. (2007). “ Feeling betrayed, Facebook users force site to honor their privacy”. The Washington Post, November 30, 2007. The Federal Bureau of Investigations. (2010). Common Fraud Schemes. Retrieved on January 21, 2010< http://www.fbi.gov/scams-safety/fraud> Read More