THE DARK SIDE

What is privacy really?

Internet Privacy

There are different notions that privacy is made up of such as: secrecy, confidentiality, solitude of home, freedom of surveillance and protecting of individual intimate relationships. Internet privacy is entitlement of an individual's data. Even those that they post, store, or provide information on the internet!

DID YOU KNOW?

Internet Giants like Google and Facebook have been collecting your personal data for many years.

Based on studies, it shows that countries such as USA are having growing concerns about their data privacy, while countries such as China shows that they do not mind personal data to be used. Their government even started openly collecting personal information whether they like it or not. On top of that, in this digitised age, younger people are more receptive to the ideas that their personal data will be collected and used as compared to the older population.

For myself, I don't mind my personal data being accessed by companies. I feel that with the data collected by organisations, they are able to produce better products suited to the consumers. They do this because at the end of the day it's all about profits for them, which gives us better products and services!

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Ethical behaviour on the internet: AKA Netiquette

Netiquette is the combination of words network + etiquette, which means having a set of rules that are acceptable for online behaviour. Similarly, online ethics refers to responsible use of online resources in the online world.

What Does It Mean To Have Good Netiquette?

In Society:

• Remembering internet is also society

Well, being online does not mean we are in a whole new world. Basic courtesy and respect is still of top-notch importance as everyone is interacting with one another digitally. Everything is as real as when we are in public socialising, but it is more of in another dimension (virtually).

• Not abusing power just because it is online

Having laws in place to protect the rights of citizens, applying them online when needed. Examples are theft, harassment, theft and even cyberbully.

• Accepting and respecting culture differences

Cultural respect and tolerance should remain. Such as looking for ways to accept social values and norms of netizens (network + citizen) will not be social values and norms of all netizens.

• Having similar standards online as we do in public

Values which society has against things such as hate speech, child exploitation or even copyright violations remain the same. Also, basic respect such as courtesy, kindness, treating others with proper manners should be the same as in public.

For Businesses:

Being a role model netizen, applying online ethics and using netiquette includes:

• Respecting rights of privacy for offline employees

Information passed by citizens in offline interaction should be respected.

• Transparency in information policies

Taking action so consumers can understand how companies will be using their personal information and protecting them. Companies can provide clear means of ownership and self-determination as to what they are.

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What Are Cookies?

A web cookie is a term for a type of message given to web browsers by a web server. The main purpose of the cookie is to identify users and possibly prepare customised web pages or to save site login information. In a matter of seconds, a huge data can be collected from these cookies.

AI is then used to collate and organisation these information to understand consumer behaviour. With the help of the huge volumes of data collected, advertisers can leverage of these to potential be able to market more effectively as compared to traditional advertising.

Pros of cookies

1. Convenience: This helps filling out details that users have previously filled in in a quick and efficient manner. For example, name and email addresses fields.

2. Personalization: Personalise content based on user's preferences. Such as bringing up related searches and content which the user has been looking for on search engines.

3. Effective advertising: Internet marketing companies collect information and data of internet users to run smoother campaigns targeted at specific markets.

4. Ease of control: It allows users to easily edit, delete and select cookies.

Cons of cookies

1. Privacy: Cookies enables web browsers to keep track of websites users visits. This means third parties can have access the information stored in the cookies.

2. Security: There are security holes in different web browsers. This means malicscious webmasters can gain access to user's data such as emails, passwords and even credit card information.

3. Secrecy: Not everyone have expertise to block cookies of their browser settings. A lot of browser use this to their advantage by tracking online behaviour to know how to market certain products or services to users.

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TROLLS

What are trolls?

Almost everything you say or do online has a little troll on the other end of the screen. Trolls are placed on this earth the disrupt and destroy the peace and harmony of the online community. It involves deliberate, deceptive and mischievous attempts to provoke others to react to them online.

Here is a short video on how to identify internet trolls!

Please feel free to leave me comments on what you have learnt!

References:

https://slate.com/technology/2019/02/china-consumer-data-protection-privacy-surveillance.html

https://edition.cnn.com/2019/11/15/tech/data-privacy-pew-study/index.html

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=gqbvRmPOgQ4