Discussing Internet Privacy Issues

Now we will look at some of the web links related with Internet Privacy issues .

This paper by a suffolk University researcher Morris A. Singer  notes in particular the privacy issues involved in Social Networking sphere. You can take a look at it   

http://suffolkmedialaw.com/2010/05/20/how-privacy-limits-utility-using-facebook-as-a-case-study/

Below is an excerpt from that paper.

"On April 27, 2010, U.S. Sens. Al Franken, Charles Schumer, Michael Bennet, and Mark Begich wrote a letter to Facebook, urging the social networking company to change their privacy settings modifications from opt-out to opt-in. In a statement accompanying the letter, Sen. Schumer said:


Millions of New Yorkers use social networking sites like Facebook, Myspace, and Twitter every day with an expectation that their private information is shared only with those they choose to connect with . . . . [I]t’s vitally important that safeguards are in place that provide users with control over their personal information to ensure they don’t receive unwanted solicitations and other nuisances, and that they are not automatically gathered into online groups without their consent."

Science Daily had some of the reports below running  last year, discussing issues related with Privacy, How Facebook and other  Social Networking sites pose concerns for a user, where the user signs away his rights to the online entity.

You can read about the Science Daily  report discussing this particular issue.

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/10/091013162746.htm

Another Science daily  report discussing a research at Worcester Polytechnic Institute,  how practices of many social networking websites make available a User's browsing information with the tracking websites.

You can read this report

 http://www.sciencedaily.com/releases/2009/08/090824151307.htm

Recently there were many privacy issues reported in the media, when it was noted that Engineers at the web giant Google were detected to have copied or collected a huge volume of private data illegally, while surveying the streets in European cites, for the Google's Street View application.

Read related BBC story

 http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/8684110.stm

Google has been since in damage control mode and  made clear that it has already purged or are on the way to purge complete data collected illegally, and then recently Google tightened up it's employee privacy policy when dealing with Customer data. Read related Yahoo report here.

There's no reason to doubt the steps taken by Google in this direction, but the concern will remain high with How much user data changed hands or the content duplicated. Though these issues are still unfolding, and it will take time till the user's swarming the Social sphere can comprehend about what exactly is been done with their virtual identity, that's increasingly revealing more and more information about a User. And a fact that it no longer gives a User an identity, which used to seem so anonymous online a couple of years ago.

You can take a look at the Privacy Policy of the facebook

 http://www.facebook.com/policy.php

You can  take a look about the latest privacy features introduced by facebook recently  

http://www.pcworld.com/article/194866/facebooks_new_features_and_your_privacy_what_you_need_to_know.html
 
How do you think that your Privacy might be affected online ?
Do you think it is OK for tracking websites to scan your data from Social Networking sites with which a User actually signs a Privacy and Terms contract ?
When did you felt that your Online Privacy has been violated ?
Are you satisfied with Privacy Policy of all the online majors in the Social Networking realm ?


For Further Reading :

Internet Security and Privacy at stake 

Mobile Security in Focus

                                                               

                                                            Source : FreeFoto

The growth in the multimedia applications along with new advanced technology smart phones, the security issues concerning this sector is just beginning to unfold. Virus, Trojans etc., affect the Mobiles the same way they affect a computer, as now 3G/4G mobiles look and behave more similar to a computer. Additional to this, user privacy and data have more increasingly come under threat.

Here is a link to Symbian OS press release in July stating how a Trojan work horse passed out its security tests.

You can have a look at Mcafee’s 2009 report  on wide ranging issues concerning security of Mobile platforms.

It is important to understand the aspect of security, when it comes to using the communication devices like PDA’s, Laptops, PC’s or mobiles, that when you are accessing the outside world, you need to have a good security mechanism to prevent threats to your mobile security, privacy and data from being hacked, stolen and manipulated.

And this aspect gives rise to another question, Is there any security in place when you are roaming with your communication device and are required to access a Wireless network located at a hot spot ? The answer is no.

This article reflects here. Discusses other issues too.

Here's another link to a document giving some simple but useful info regarding, How we can help protect our mobile phone in general, which almost all of us know, but its still better to take a look, in case if  missing out on anything. So, remember always to browse safely when you are mobile.

1. Are you secure online ? gives a good introduction overview on the Internet Security threats we face today. I recommend to give it a read

How to Secure yourself Online?

                                          
Computer and Network Security has become one of the most crucial sector nowadays with viruses, Trojans, malware, bots etc., wreaking havoc on computer systems day in and out. The most shocking thing is, even when you are fully updated with the latest security software and regularly scan your system, you are still not safe, with the new viruses hitting the web every minute. It is an ongoing battle, the only way we could remain safe is through constant vigil when using computer systems and also now the mobile phones.

And on the other hand you have website hacking, impersonation ( identity theft ), DOS ( Denial of service attacks), Phishing etc., and lots of other threats to computer networks across the world. Victims of such attacks come from a wide spectrum including popular government websites and other important public figures.

Also in the recent past there was a strong speculation of Network attacks being used as a modern form of warfare by targeting the adversary’s vital communication networks.

I will suggest using best practices in the industry to prevent any data loss on your computer system and more importantly protecting your online identity, it being so crucial nowadays, as we are now transacting more and more on the internet.

I will suggest keeping yourself updated every now and then with latest security features and scan your machine regularly.

I will suggest you to use anti-virus software’s scanning for viruses and using separate dedicated software for scanning Spy wares.

Registry checkers are very tough things to use and only users with expert knowledge can handle it, as tinkering with the registry is like playing with the soul of your machine and if anything goes wrong it’s very hard to revert back.

Never trust every other website for software’s when downloading, always buy authentic software from the original vendor, and always check the necessary credentials of a website before downloading anything like music, video or games. Many websites are attack websites and can pose a threat to your computer security.

If you are using Firefox, though it consumes little bit of more memory, but should work fine on faster machines, you have a good add-on in it like WOT. WOT (Web of Trust) is an add-on for Firefox which lets the user have knowledge of a site’s worthiness and other features with indicators of green, orange and red. So, that you don’t visit a website which might attack you by running malware’s on your machine or copying sensitive information from your computer.

If you have sufficient knowledge you can add your vote, it’s basically a user shared experience of a website, mostly it is true and sometimes it can be misleading or wrongly suggesting an authentic site to be an attack site.

Always be in touch with what processes your machine is running on your system, as there are many methods through which Trojan’s and Spyware’s get activated on your machine, they may be lying hidden in a program that you might think safe, but they get activated as soon as you run that program.

Image objects in the email many times have a malicious code embedded into it and they get activated when you open your email and click the object, the spamming follow the same procedure affecting the networks traffic besides fraudulent information solicitation emails.

Password thefts are serious, a threat to your identity being impersonated online; there are many ways that you could lose your password, by losing your physically stored details in the form of a diary or other object, by selecting easily guessable passwords in the form of names or other popular places and public figures or even your favourite dish.

There are several password breaking methods available unless you use a strong password in the form mixing upper case, lower case letters, adding some numbers and some special characters on your keyboard to it, so that it is at least eight characters strong.

Your password is an input to the encryption scheme employed by an online service and sometimes if you reverse that scheme (decryption) the password could be guessed, using strong passwords makes your password hard to break.

So, as you can see there are two elements in this security, you need to rely on your password and the encryption scheme being employed, if anything is weaker then the integrity of the information being transmitted or accessed could be compromised, mostly many popular online services like email and chat clients use latest encryption methods, but what if you have landed into an unchartered territory and are required to use a service whose encryption scheme is not as strong as it should be, your strong password could save you the day.

Mostly passwords are easiest thing that bad guys rely on breaking into someone’s online account either email, bank or any other online service.

Here’s a link for Microsoft’s password strength checker page

I will try and keep updating you on this topic from time to time. Thanks for reading, enjoy :) !