Importance of online Privacy

Is online privacy important?

Qianmeng Chen 175810510

LMP-001 Academic Writing & Research

Raisa Alarakyia

December 11, 2017

Is online privacy important?

With the transformation of the modern lifestyle, people tend to upload an increasing number of photos and information to express their opinions and display their lifestyles on the Internet. Under these circumstances, online privacy plays a critical role and has significant impact on the website users, as it brings about meanings on the aspects of personal safety, property security, moral legitimacy, and information validity.

First, online platforms may expose the users’ confidential information and details of their life to anyone who may have ulterior motives, will endanger the users’ personal safety and property security. Any information the users posted online may expose their personal privacy to any other users. Privacy leakage will not only lead to the disclosure of confidential information, but also bring hidden trouble due to fraudulent usage of personal data. When people try to register in discussion forums or conduct online shopping, they are often required to submit their personal information, such as their address, birth date, or identification numbers, and sometimes even credit card information. As for companies, disclosing confidential information can bring heavy losses and potential threats because any competitor can take advantage of this leaked data to carry out hostile actions against the company. Sim (2009) has claimed these points in his article “Online information privacy and privacy protective behavior: How does situation awareness matter”. He pointed out that modern technologies, such as chat room and online blogs, encourage people to expose more personal information and sometimes people ignore the possibility of sensitive information disclosure. (p. 17). Meanwhile, based on the research conducted on Facebook's privacy settings, Jordaan & Heerden discovered that “its default privacy settings were public”. This kind of phenomenon should remind the Internet users that “social network platform makes unauthorized access possible if the user does not take the necessary privacy control measures.” In other words, the personal information of users can be exposed to the public unconsciously. All the evidence proves that, currently, the users cannot control how the owners of online channels and other users would utilize their information, and they cannot predict what kind of consequences or potential danger would happen in the future.  

Anyone who uses the Internet can leak news on the user’s behalf or fabricate facts to attack the user. It may result in cyber violence, and may expose the users to similar ethical risks because the Internet users cannot control other users’ behaviors. It will have negative impacts on the users’ physical and psychological health. The article Li (2016) showed a controversial online collective action called Human Flesh Search Engine (“HFSE”) in China. Due to the openness of the Internet, any user can search, track down or vilify people via online channels without a valid supervision system. Although sometimes people use the HFSE action to carry out counter measures, we cannot ignore the negative aspects of HFSE. For hunting a specific target, any user can post and exchange any information which cannot either guaranteed or confirmed this. Under this situation, the users who are being searched would lose their freedom and normal lifestyle as people with the information will be able to easily impose surveillance on them and their families. Utilizing these kind of internet tactics without restriction may lead to critical ethical issues and damage innocent people’s safety and health. There is no doubt that any citizen has the right to protect his or her privacy from malicious disclosure.

Furthermore, the exposure of online information may provide opportunities for technology organizations or network operators to analyze users’ interests and behaviors. They may easily utilize that information to disturb potential customers by sending large amount of spams, news, or marketing materials. In addition, they can also use the information collected from internet users to promote falsified products and services in the form of personalized advertising campaigns. By tailoring the fraudulent products or biased news based on the users’ interests and preferences, it is easier to mislead the reader and expose them to potential criminal activities. For example, the book “Preserving privacy in on-line analytical processing (OLAP)” illustrates the threats of electronic privacy in an online processing and mentions that “Without sufficient security mechanisms safeguarding the data, the analyst may obtain and later misuse the personal information about the customers.” (Wang & Jajodia & Wijesekera, 2007). Based on the existing technical drawbacks of online analysis systems, we should take notice of the necessity of protecting online privacy and developing protective mechanisms. The website operators and merchants cannot guarantee the authenticity and validity of the information. Therefore, Internet users may receive junk or fraud emails and online articles, which will waste their time and energy.

Some people hold a different opinion on the importance of online privacy. They recognize that revealing online privacy is not a serious problem in modern society. One of their points is that the more they share personal ideas and lifestyles online, the more they will be benefited in collecting useful information and expanding their social network. Nevertheless, the real fact is that lots of Internet users aim at obtaining profits through providing fake or unhealthy information online and deceiving other users. If users do not emphasize their online privacy, any potential criminal who claims to be a friend or partner may gather the users’ personal information easily. One of the methods that these criminals carry out their activities is by lying about who they are, and convince the Internet users to share their account numbers, passwords, and other information so that they can steal the victims’ personal properties or buy things using the victims’ names. In the article “Securing online privacy”, Chen (2017) pointed out that online forums and virtual communication can provide a platform to anyone who might be a potential offender. This method may increase the probability of information leakage and monetary loss. Therefore, while the online networking sites may bring potential opportunities to promote communication, the identities of the people on the other end is unclear. It is hard for a real user to evaluate the authenticity of all information and judge the genuine intentions of their contacts.