At the RSA Security Europe Conference in the UK recently, individual privacy was brought to the front of people's minds. It has been debated that society and communication has irrevocably changed, which has already had a bad effect on personal privacy levels. Decades ago, conversation was generally carried out over the phone or in person. Yet now, most communication is done via email and/or online. This will create a copy of all correspondence.
Trashing an email does not necessarily delete it. The receiver or sender will still have a version of the message on their email account. Furthermore, giant data centres now make it easy to record online conversation. It is argued that inexpensive technology costs and increasing memory hard drives mean that storing and collecting data is now more accomplishable than it was some years back ago.
You might be wondering why it matters so much, but private data is the same as higher profits and having access to lots of private personal data will result in companies making more profit from advertising. On an everyday level, this is often seen whilst registering for anything new, with those 'tick here if you do not wish to hear any communication from us'; this occurs offline and online. However, how many of us read the terms of agreement and privacy policies for the programs we use or the websites which we use? It may well be astonishing to go through some of them and know exactly what the website can do with the collected data.
Facebook continues to be derided for its convoluted privacy settings and not being transparent. It is completely feasible for anyone to browse just about all the information on a person's profile page if they haven't enabled particular privacy configurations. Although the security mindful among people will be sure to set our privacy settings accordingly, many people usually do not know they're actually exposing themselves to potential online crime and identity theft. It's not simply sufficient to assert that it is the user's problem if their level of privacy becomes compromised. Furthermore, companies should never desire to deceive people for the purpose of less complicated data farming.
Google has recently been faced with plenty of political and social complaints pertaining to its collection of personal data whilst gathering data as part of its StreetView services. Google effectively listened in to people's Internet connections and stored personal and private data. Google's nonchalant reply upset loads of people and several governments were drawn into the debate challenging the legality of what Google did.
The more data an organization has on you, the more they can charge companies to target users. If a company knows that you are female, aged between 30-40 and have three children, then advertisers will be willing to pay more since they can target advertisements better. If an advert gets targeted at the right demographic then the advertisers will see more results. Marketers are willing to pay more because then they would be able to target you with toy advertisements, home improvement advertisements, kitchen advertisements and so on, as opposed to advertisements for weight lifting or extreme sports (although these are large generalizations).
Therefore, it is crucial to always ensure you read the terms of agreement thoroughly and know your rights. Everytime you register for something you are basically signing a contract. It is terrible to think that one ill-judged sign up for a site could result in anything bad a few years down the line. You should always read the terms well, it might be clichd but it just may save you from sticky situations. Furthermore, you should also maintain good web safety practices. Owning a great password is a great step but you could also try an online password manager which will enhance your security by a lot! You can save passwords to a site and keep them safe and secure.
Trashing an email does not necessarily delete it. The receiver or sender will still have a version of the message on their email account. Furthermore, giant data centres now make it easy to record online conversation. It is argued that inexpensive technology costs and increasing memory hard drives mean that storing and collecting data is now more accomplishable than it was some years back ago.
You might be wondering why it matters so much, but private data is the same as higher profits and having access to lots of private personal data will result in companies making more profit from advertising. On an everyday level, this is often seen whilst registering for anything new, with those 'tick here if you do not wish to hear any communication from us'; this occurs offline and online. However, how many of us read the terms of agreement and privacy policies for the programs we use or the websites which we use? It may well be astonishing to go through some of them and know exactly what the website can do with the collected data.
Facebook continues to be derided for its convoluted privacy settings and not being transparent. It is completely feasible for anyone to browse just about all the information on a person's profile page if they haven't enabled particular privacy configurations. Although the security mindful among people will be sure to set our privacy settings accordingly, many people usually do not know they're actually exposing themselves to potential online crime and identity theft. It's not simply sufficient to assert that it is the user's problem if their level of privacy becomes compromised. Furthermore, companies should never desire to deceive people for the purpose of less complicated data farming.
Google has recently been faced with plenty of political and social complaints pertaining to its collection of personal data whilst gathering data as part of its StreetView services. Google effectively listened in to people's Internet connections and stored personal and private data. Google's nonchalant reply upset loads of people and several governments were drawn into the debate challenging the legality of what Google did.
The more data an organization has on you, the more they can charge companies to target users. If a company knows that you are female, aged between 30-40 and have three children, then advertisers will be willing to pay more since they can target advertisements better. If an advert gets targeted at the right demographic then the advertisers will see more results. Marketers are willing to pay more because then they would be able to target you with toy advertisements, home improvement advertisements, kitchen advertisements and so on, as opposed to advertisements for weight lifting or extreme sports (although these are large generalizations).
Therefore, it is crucial to always ensure you read the terms of agreement thoroughly and know your rights. Everytime you register for something you are basically signing a contract. It is terrible to think that one ill-judged sign up for a site could result in anything bad a few years down the line. You should always read the terms well, it might be clichd but it just may save you from sticky situations. Furthermore, you should also maintain good web safety practices. Owning a great password is a great step but you could also try an online password manager which will enhance your security by a lot! You can save passwords to a site and keep them safe and secure.
About the Author:
This article has been written by the author, Alex Blaken. Should you require any more Signing Up For a New Website please visit his When Enrolling For a New Site resources!
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