Information Privacy in the Internet Era
by Roman Wong, Ph.D.
Overview
Setting the Stage: Questions to Think About
- Should corporations such as Google be allowed to collect information on visitors who use their search engines and sell the data to others for marketing purposes?
- Is it appropriate for a company such as Google to leave a "cookie" on your computer that allows it to collect data about you?
- Should the government have access to data collected by search engines and other internet sites that helps them monitor the internet activity of citizens and/or foreigners?
Introduction
The widespread use of information and communication technologies such as the internet has significantly changed our daily lives in many respects. Banking, shopping, and many other on-line interactions have made a large amount of personal and sensitive information available on the web. Even when we are not completing any transactions, but only browsing the web, the mouse-clicking of the web browsers and consumer information obtained from the integration of multiple merchant databases on their customers allow other parties to easily develop profiles on us.
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