Internet and its Extra Gracious Role in the Common Life

Question: Discuss how the internet has impacted information privacy. Answer: The origin of internet was in the 1960s when the US Federal Government commissioned a research to build a robust communication system using computer systems (Bill Stewart, 2000). The first network thus built was called the ARPANET which was the precursor to modern day internet. It was used for communication across regional military and academic networks. Bolstered by the success of this technology, The National Science Foundation Network provided the initial funding along with several other commercial interests which led to the merger of many such networks, which marked the beginning of the transition to modern internet (Peter, Ian; 2004). From 1995 to 2015, the Internet has managed a growth rate which has enabled the number of users to grow a hundred- fold (Treese.org. 1995 and Miniwatts Marketing Group, 2012). The internet captured the imagination of every industry and quickly began to assimilate technology with these fields. Some of them are: Communications media like television, radio and telephony have been completely reshaped by the Internet to give totally new services such as Internet television, Internet Radio and Internet Telephony, Web Conferencing etc. Books, newspapers and print publishers are fast adapting to the internet and converting to web feeds and blogs. Several means of interaction have been made possible by the internet like internet forums, social networking, e- mail and instant messaging. Commerce has gained a massive push due to concepts like online shopping, online trading of shares, commodities, debentures, managing supply chains across continents etc. and helped people across various fields of life including artisans, traders, businessmen and many more. Issues of Privacy: But there is always another side to the coin- everything good also has a bad thing looming over it. All of this development has come with a price. Due to all sorts of personal information being available online due to this digitization and all systems being essentially interconnected to each other, it has become extremely easy for anyone with the technical know- how to extract personal information and other information from the internet without any issues whatsoever. Due to this internet age, privacy has become a myth, irrespective of whether it is voluntary of involuntary. This situation is made even more dire due to the fact that the Internet has no form of centralized governance whatsoever either in the form of technological implementation or the policies required for access and usage (Jonathan Strickland,2014). Every network sets its own policies in this regard which makes it possible to exploit the loopholes involved ( Hoffman and S. Harris, 2006). The internet resources, hardware components and the software components are targeted maliciously in attempts to gain unauthorized control over the network or infrastructure involved in order to cause interruption or access private information. Such attempts include the deployment of computer viruses, which are essentially computer worms capable of replicating themselves automatically, usage of ransom- ware, denial of service attacks, using bot- nets and spyware which gives the deployer information about the activity and typing history of users. Computer surveillance is also a real threat wherein all your data and traffic on the internet is monitored continuously in real- time (Diffie, Whitfield; Susan Landau, August 2008). In countries like the United States, the Communications Assistance for Law Enforcement Act provides the ability to make all phone calls, email, instant messaging, web traffic etc available for uninterrupted and unimpeded monitoring to federal law enforcement agencies (Hill, Michael; 2004 and McCullagh, Declan; 2007 ). Without a question, privacy is the single most important aspect of the internet today and bothers users who are aware of the fact that their internet activities are not secure. And especially since the internet has managed to pervade every single aspect of our lives, there is a necessity for a line to be drawn which helps to protect internet users privacy. Be it with regards to safety of minors and children online or with relation to the e-Commerce transactions, a comprehensive internet privacy act needs to be enacted at the earliest to protect individuals from being exploited by mischief mongers. This is all the more important because any kind of financial transaction requires a person to furnish his/ her personal information which can be exploited to unimaginable levels., which is why it is imperative that we take action to include privacy in such agreements. Several countries like USA, UK and India have governments which have laid down specific guidelines which are to be followed by every citizen when performing online transactions or using the internet. But there are no concrete laws which are difficult to bypass. Existing laws are full of loopholes which can be and are exploited. Internet privacy is the right to have personal privacy with regard to the storing, provision to third parties, repurposing and display of information related to oneself through the internet. Privacy with regards to the internet have been voiced since the beginnings of the internet (E. E. David and R. M. Fano, 1965). Some experts like Steve Rambam, who is a personal investigator who specializes in Internet privacy cases have gone on record to say that internet privacy is a myth and due to the existing state of internet privacy laws, the damage and penetration has been so extensive that it is almost impossible to recover from it. It has also been suggested that privacy is required to protect people from those who are in power, and to prevent the possibility of future abuse of that knowledge (Bruce Schneier, 2006). Risks to privacy: There are several cases where it has been seen that companies are hired to observe which site people log on to and then use this information to perform targeted advertising, which is based on an individuals browsing history. A similar trend is seen with online ravel based companies which track what prices a person have paid for tickets earlier and then fix prices of tickets accordingly, even if the actual rates are cheaper. Social Media: Also directly observed behavior like browsing logs, search tags, social media profiles etc. can be and are used to infer intrusive details of peoples lives such as political views, religious views, race, ethnicity, psychological and behavioral issues, sexual orientation etc. to name a few (Kosinski, Michal; Stillwell, D.; Graepel, T., 2013). Links on social media sites which might seem innocent, sometimes lead to dangerous malware and spyware download sites which can help infect their computers with potentially dangerous software and tracking codes. Even while using smartphones, features like geo- location can be used to track the places a person visits, the time they spend there, the routes used to travel to places and post these details online for anyone to see. Cookies: HTTP cookies are also a major privacy concern. A HTTP cookie is data stored on a users computer to assist in automated access to a website or web features, or other information regarding state required for complex web sites to function optimally. These can also be manipulated to track user browsing habits, search queries etc. Such cookies are used by Google Analytics and are called tracking cookies. Most website developers use them in a legitimate manner, but several cases of abuse have been recorded and observed. In 2009, it was observed that social networking profiles could be connected to cookies which would allow the profiles to be connected to browsing habits and hence for analytical processes. In the past, web sites never informed users explicitly about the usage of cookies which prompted US and European lawmakers to take action against tracking cookies and third party cookies which enabled compilation of long term records f individuals browsing histories. In the past years, user awareness with regard to cookies has also improved which has enabled them to counter the effects of cookies. Which are less effective since modern browsers and modern malware detectors can block and detect. Search Engines: Even though efforts are made to protect identities, and the true identity of a person is not known, a full profile of the member is possible by just using the information available on AOL Search. By just building these records, even without a name to allot it to, the company and learn a huge amount without even knowing their name. Some solutions are available to users to protect their privacy. One such program is called Rapleaf which is a website with a search engine which allows users to keep all their search and browsing history private. Some search engines anonymise Google searches and are called Privacy- focused search engines. Some of them are: MetaGer- A German search engine which has all its servers in Germany, which is a benefit since German legislation tends to give more importance to privacy laws. IxQuick: A Dutch based meta search engine which is also omitted to the protection of privacy. It uses similar features for the safety of its data like MetaGer. Yacy: It is a community project with a decentralized search engine. It uses a peer-to- peer principle that does not need stationary and centralized servers, thus saving on costs and helping it to achieve its goals of reducing hacking problems. There are several other search engines like Duck Duck Go and StartPage which follow similar methods and have the same goals. Several other potential privacy risks are: Malware: It stands for malicious software and is used to define the software that causes damage to a computer, or a whole server, or sometimes even a whole network by the means of a Trojan horse, or spyware, or a virus. Spyware: It is a small code of software that steals information from a computer without the consent of the administrator. Web Bug: It is an object which is embedded within a web page or an inconspicuous mail and is usually undetectable by normal means. It permits the infiltrator to check whether a website or a message has been viewed. Phishing: This is a criminally fraudulent method of attempting to obtain sensitive and personal information such as credit card information, bank account numbers, user names and passwords by tricking users into believing that they are talking to official representatives of their banks or credit card companies. Pharming: This is done by hackers to reroute traffic from websites to totally different internet addresses by changing the host file or hacking into the DNS server and exploiting its vulnerability. Social Engineering: Similar to phishing where people manipulate others to perform certain actions or divulge sensitive information. Malicious Proxy servers: Some servers trick customers while promising to be secure and vouching to protect your information and provide a safe sense of security. When a customer is relaxed assuming that their private information is safe, these servers then use this data for their own purposes. Web RTC: This is a software protocol which is enabled by default in browsers like Google Chrome and Firefox. IT has a particular vulnerability which compromises the integrity of VP tunnels by causing the actual IP address to be read by using a specific process. These and several other concerns are extremely dangerous and need to be addressed by lawmakers as soon as possible. This is of typically paramount importance since it has been made clear over the years that the number of such dangers is increasing and it is getting extremely difficult for normal people to protect against such attacks. One of the major concerns is that of identity theft wherein several innocent people have suffered through no real fault of theirs, except for ignorance. The situation is worsened by the fact that, while we typically assume such attacks to be more rampant on commercial establishments or large corporate houses, the truth is at individuals are more of a target. In 2007, a report by the Internet Security Threat Report stated that about ninety three percent (93%) of such gateway attacks were targeted at individual home users who were unprepared for it. A gateway attack is not a direct attack, but a potential back door to utilize for further exploitation. Solutions: According to (Mediati, N., 2010) and (Larose, R.; Rifon, N. J., 2007)It is possible to a certain extent to curb these issues by updating virus protection software using security settings and privacy settings wisely downloading recommended patches periodically installing strong firewalls screening mails and not responding to those mails which are from unrecognized or suspicious sources running checks for and shutting down spyware controlling cookies wherever possible using encryption software blocking pop- ups Another way of protecting your own privacy is to include the use of VPNs. VPN services use encryption technologies to protect your privacy. This is the same technology which protects banks, and large corporations from tracking and other online dangers. These services allow users to privately send and receive messages, keep browsing history private, encrypt all your traffic, and ultimately enabling sessions to remain completely private. Everything from smartphones to laptops can use VPNs, and once these are established on a device, every browsing session is conducted through the portal provided by the VPN provider which completely blocks any possibility of raking attempts which allows you to safeguard your personal information. However, this is a very difficult proposition since most people have little or no idea as to how to proceed with these issues. An average user with no experience in technology cannot be expected to understand these issues and take action against such dangers, especially when they are getting more sophisticated every day. Several businesses can afford to hire professionals to take care of such issues, but this option is out of reach of the general public since these services are often very expensive and also require a certain amount of diligence on part of the users all the same. Hence it becomes a greater responsibility on the part of the governments across the world to ensure that their citizens are protected from this very real risk of cyber- attacks, information theft, identity theft and lack of privacy. There is a need like never before to clamp down on such unethical and unlawful activities which endanger the quality of life and the peace of mind of citizens. References: Electronic Frontier Foundation (website) Electronic Frontier Foundation (website) The Living Internet, Bill Stewart (ed), January 2000 Treese.org. 1995-11-11 Schneier.com, 2009 Jonathan Strickland,How Stuff Works. 27 June 2014 Internet World Stats. Miniwatts Marketing Group. 30 June 2012 Bruce Schneier (May 18, 2006). Diffie, Whitfield; Susan Landau (August 2008).