Protecting information privacy in the internet age

Therefore, this article aims to analyze the issue of protecting information privacy in three ways. It will first introduce the concept of information privacy and then explore several ways in which users’ privacy might be violated. Three possible solutions to address privacy Issues will be discussed at the end. 2. Defining Information Privacy Information privacy Is a subset of the concept of privacy, which has been explored and discussed since the advent of the Internet technologies.

Clarke (1999) concludes hat privacy is often thought of as a moral right or a legal right to be let alone. From this perspective, information privacy can be described as one’s ability to control information about oneself (Westin, 1967). If an individual cannot maintain a substantial degree of Influence over their personal Information and Its usage, Invasions of privacy would occur (Llm, 2000). 3. Privacy Threats From the Internet 3. 1 Social networks Social networks, such as Facebook and Twitter, are online services that allow users to share information and interact with one another.

According to an online usage report onducted in 2009 by Nielsen, approximately 70% of internet users are posting information, often including photos, about themselves on social networking sites. While social networks Indeed serves as a convenient tool to Integrate Individuals Into a particular social group, It also comes with threats to users’ privacy. People increasingly rely on computers to perform daily tasks and tend to put up all kinds of private information on the networks.

These details information about one’s name, age, gender, occupation and even e-mail address could be easily accessed by housands of strangers from all around the world, which means there is no guarantee that how these personal information would be misused and Cookies are usually created when users visit a website and then are stored in a file on the users’ computer. It is believed that cookies can be used as an effective and convenient method to gather individuals’ data, because the characteristics of the Internet enable cookies to track and record users’ visits without their permission.