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Internet Privacy
By Richard Lowe
How many times have
you surfed to a new site, only to be asked
for your name, birthday and gender? Did you enter the
information that was requested? And if you did enter it, was it
the real information or something you made up?
I don't know about
you, but I find sites which needlessly ask
for personal information to be annoying. In fact, I will leave a
site the moment a site requires me to enter anything which is
not necessary to complete the transaction.
Yes, I do understand
that when I apply for a credit card I need
to enter my social security number, birthday and mother's maiden
name. In these instances, the purpose of the information is
readily apparent - it is needed in order to obtain my credit
record. This is normal and expected and thus I don't even think
about entering the data.
On the other hand,
why does that free mail account require me to
enter my birthday and gender? Worse yet, they want to know how
much money I make! Why on earth would I want them this
information? They obviously don't need this data to create a
free mailbox - so there must be some other purpose which is not
obvious.
Of course, they want
this data so they can build a profile about
me, which in turn can be used to target advertising to me and
other's like me. My personal information is not likely to be
used specifically - rather, it is grouped together and sold as a
unit. For example, an advertiser might want to display a banner
to thirty year old males who make $30,000 a year or more. By
having this information, the free email account company can
satisfy that need for their customers - the advertisers.
Yeah, I know they
promise in their privacy policy that the
information will not be abused - but Amazon recently told us all
how important privacy policies are to corporate America. This
company simply modified the policy to allow the information to
be sold to third parties! They sent out an email informing all
of their customers that the information which used to be private
is private no longer.
So a privacy policy
does not appear to be a binding document -
at least, it's not if it can be changed at will. What this means
is a privacy policy is essentially worthless, even if you
completely trust the company. Why worthless? Well, if that
company that you trust with all of your personal data is sold,
it is no longer run by the people that have earned your trust.
New owners could easily modify the policy at any time.
Ah, I hear you saying,
who cares about privacy anyway? Well, you
should. Let me give you an example. Let's say you've been
purchasing liquor over the internet. Now your wife divorces you
and subpoenas that internet company for the records of your
purchases. She could, in theory, use that information against
you in a divorce case. The liquor receipts do not prove you were
an alcoholic, but they could certainly be used to sway a jury
that it is possible.
In the company that
I work for, it is a serious offense to let
other's in the company find out how much money you make. In
fact, you could be fired if you told another employee your
salary. Yet you have to enter that same highly sensitive data to
get a free email account!
There have also been
quite a few stories in the news lately
about accidental e-mailings of personal information to the wrong
people. These mailings all seemed to have to do with medical
records. I read one case where 5,000 people received other
people's medical history in their email box! I don't know about
you, but I don't really want my medical records spread all over
the planet!
What is the point
of all of this? Well, you just need to be
careful about giving out your personal information over the
internet. You don't really know who is at the other end of the
telephone line, and you probably don't have a good understanding
of how that information is to be kept secure, how it is going to
be used and why it is even needed in the first place.
So before you type
in that personal data ask yourself a few
questions.
Do I really need this
service? - When I am asked something
personal that I would rather not give out, this is the first
thing that I ask. Is this service really that important? For me,
half the time the answer is no. If it is important, I usually
find that I can pay some small fee for the same service without
giving any personal data, and that's what I usually wind up
doing.
What is this information
likely to be used for? - This is
obvious when I'm entering information to get a credit card, and
not so obvious when I want a free email account. Remember, you
never get something for nothing - there is always a price, even
if it is well hidden. Find out what the site is going to use the
information for before you enter it.
Do I care if anyone
else knows this information? - If the answer
is yes (as it was for the amount of money that I make), then
think a little harder about entering it into that web form. How
embarrassed or damaged would you be if that data wound up posted
on a thousand web sites?
Personally, I am least
likely to give away personal information
that is to be used for marketing purposes, no matter how much
benefit I will gain for that data. It is not one of my primary
goals in life to make it easier for advertisers to target me for
their messages. In fact, I would rather not get their ads at all.
The key is simple.
Before you enter that information into the
web form, do a little research and find out what the data is
going to be used for. Think for a moment about how you would
feel if everyone knew, then decide for yourself if you still
want to enter it.
About the Author
Richard Lowe Jr. is the webmaster of Internet Tips And Secrets
at http://www.internet-tips.net - Visit our website any time to
read over 1,000 complete FREE articles about how to improve your
internet profits, enjoyment and knowledge.
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