Online Privacy - Issues of Digital Privacy

Running head: ONLINE PRIVACY
Online Privacy
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Introduction
Baruh, Secinti and Cemalcilar (2017) stated that the online privacy is a privacy as
well as safety level of the personal data which are available via internet. It is a term used to
defend the complex as well as private data. Chen, Beaudoin and Hong (2017) mentioned that
digital privacy is when the user’s internet plus connected devices without require to
compromise the information. During period of 2012-2017, there are legislative changes in the
online privacy law of Australia. The Federal Privacy Act 1988 provided with a outline to
protect the personal information in online setting within Australia. The paper is focused on
discussing the online privacy and its issues raised around the digital materials. Two case
studies are also discussed on online privacy considered to ensure digital privacy of the
confidential and sensitive data and information.
Background on Digital Privacy
Issues of digital privacy
Digital privacy is important to protect identify and personal information form theft.
Stealing of personal information and identify can compromise the activities of user and
provide effect on reputation. The main issues raised around the digital materials are media
failure, rapid changes in hardware as well as software of computer which can lead to failure
of old system on daily basis. Spying and snooping is one of the major concern raised due to
digital materials. When the user is online, then he/she is spied by various trackers (Lwin,
Wirtz, & Stanaland, 2016). The trackers keep record of search history of users and then track
the online activities of user. It provides them information of the user and their interest, it is
also termed as breach of digital privacy policy. Tracking is mainly done through
advertisements by showing ads to the users according to their interest. Through this process,
the information is being used by cybercriminals to perform unauthorized activities with

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digital materials in online existence (Choi, Park, & Jung, 2018). Information misleading is
other issue of digital privacy. There are various websites on internet which require personal
information for getting access to services. Those sites store cookies and save personal
information of user. Most time this data is not encrypted and it is accessed by anybody.
Modern trends of the e-banking as well as e-business are at risk with the digital privacy. By
distribution of bank particulars on the internet lead to vulnerable to the cybercriminals.
Options to consider ensuring digital privacy
In those causes of digital privacy issues, the options which are required to consider in
digital privacy are enabled private browsing. It can delate the cookies, browsing history as
well as temporary files from the computer after closing the window. The tracker are gathered
information from online activities of user, cleaning of browsing history and activities will
ensure information privacy (Shin & Kang, 2016). The user should generate strong as well as
unique password for their website application and profiles, which is difficult to guess. The
user should not use same password in various places. Facebook, Google and other
applications should be locked with two factor authentication. It means when log in the apps,
it requires a special code that the website texts in the user’s phone.
In case of Facebook, the user should access to the social networking sites by using
http:// for safeguarding the username password and other data on post. The user should
understand the privacy setting of Facebook so that on weekly basis, the profile password
should require to change (Kokolakis, 2017). All the browsing history and search engines
should be deleted in case Facebook is used in public domain. In case of Google, data
encryption is required. Data backup is also helpful to create duplicate copy of data if it is
stolen and lost. Anti-malware protection is must for the user to provide security for the
devices. The browser is kept secured by turning off the third party cookies (Millham & Atkin,