An Overview of What Internet Privacy Actually Entails
Have you ever wondered what Internet privacy actually entails? When asked about such privacy, most users will probably mention that they do not want hackers to be able to access their personal data. Others will mention SPAM emails that are consistently crowding their inboxes. All of these are parts of the puzzle. Here is an overview of what Internet privacy really encompasses:
Internet privacy refers to a computer user’s ability to control what kind of identifiable information she or he leaves behind when surfing the Internet. This may take the form of easily controlled environments, such as what information to give when signing up with a message board, service, or when conducting business on the Internet. For example, do you really need to provide your mother’s maiden name in order to purchase a book over the Internet? Should you provide your birth date and home address in order to sign up for an email alert? Is it wise to freely give out your home email and work email addresses, as well as your telephone number when you are creating an account with a message board? Internet privacy begins with the user, and as such you will need to control how much information about yourself you will disseminate on the Internet.
Internet privacy also refers to the amount of personally identifiable information you give out that you may not even be aware of. This includes your IP address, operating system specifications, geographic location, browser details and other data that you leave behind simply by being online. Various programs exist that will help you to mask this data.
Hackers who will seek to gain access to your computer via the Internet conduct attacks on Internet privacy. This may be done with the help of viruses, worms and spyware that may be attached to a Trojan program. The latter is a program that appears to be something you may download to play a game, such as an ActiveX control, or a piece of shareware you want to use – usually to increase the speed of your computer. Written into the code of these programs are undesirable programs that open a backdoor to your system, which the hacker will then use to get control of your files.
Compromised Internet privacy leads to identity theft as a worst case scenario. Only slightly better is the notion of having your credit card information stolen. A nuisance of penetrated privacy is the amount of adware that is suddenly uploaded to the computer. Pop-up ads will be generated whenever a window is opened or in spaced intervals, disabling your ability to work unhindered and continuously. Your home page might be changed and in severe cases of infection, you will even find that the background of the desktop has been permanently changed.
One term that is almost always bandied about when discussing Internet privacy is the cookie. This little piece of data is widely accepted as being necessary to conduct business over the ‘Net, and computer users are able to decide just what kind of cookies they want to permit access to their computer. A high security setting will inevitably impair your ability to surf the Internet as you usually do, since very frequently you will be prompted to permit a cookie to be downloaded. A low security setting will result in your computer’s being overrun with them. A happy middle ground may be the idea of deleting cookies at the end of your Internet session. This will not only permit you to take advantage of all the functions of a website, but it will also help you to consistently purge your system of any unneeded and unwanted pieces of data you may have picked up along the way.
