NIT2201 (IT Profession & Ethics): Online Privacy Essay Analysis

This essay delves into the multifaceted issue of online privacy, examining its importance in the digital age. It begins by establishing a foundational understanding of online privacy, emphasizing its significance in controlling personal information and the challenges users face. The essay explores the loss of online privacy and related threats, including data breaches, hacking, and the misuse of personal data by browsers and e-commerce platforms. It discusses the role of Internet Service Providers (ISPs) and the vulnerabilities associated with clickstream data. The essay presents two case studies: one concerning Facebook's data breach involving Cambridge Analytica and another highlighting how users share health, family, and financial information online. It also addresses the role of user behavior, such as weak passwords and unsafe browsing habits, in contributing to privacy issues. The essay concludes by emphasizing the need for increased user awareness, stronger security measures, and ethical practices to protect personal information in the online environment, particularly in the context of e-commerce and modern banking. The essay references several academic sources to support its arguments.

Running Head: Online Privacy
Online Privacy
Essay
System04104
12/14/2019

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Online Privacy
Introduction
Use of digital devices is common in all over the word that helps people to
communicate with other people, retrieve information on fingertips, store huge amount of
data, and access to variety of information through the help of Internet. However, people also
use Internet to share or store their personal information, medical information, financial
information, buying or selling things with the help of Internet and they use their debit
cards/credit card information or banking details over internet (Carpenter, McLeod, Hicks, &
Maasberg, 2018). However, the major concern is that sharing data or person information is
whether safe or not for the people and how use of privacy concern while using internet or
storing their online information on cloud storage etc. The purpose of this essay is to aware
people that how their searching information is traced by the browsers and how they use the
personal information of users through tracing their surfing pattern and storage of data.
LOSS OF ONLINE PRIVACY AND THREATS/COMPARING LEGISLATION
ON ONLINE PRIVACY
When it comes to the type of data, users seemed particular concerned about the
misuse of their personal data such as name, email-id, date of birth, gender, photos, financial
details etc. However, theft of passwords or financial data can be considered under the crime,
which was generally mentioned less often (Fortes, Rita, & Pagani, 2017). Online privacy is a
major concern for the internet users because it is characterised by hype and preys in fear.
People use internet for communication, access information, or searching information on

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browsers but they fear about the tracking concerns, digital blueprints, data trail, hacking, or
theft of their personal data or online profiling issues etc. There are varieties of software or
spyware products are available on internet but despite of being people lost their money,
crucial personal information, and banking/financial information on the Internet. Not knowing
how the surfing pattern of user is being trace or thefts by their browser always dangerous for
the people (Anic, Škare, & Milaković, 2019). However, most of the people trust on their
browser and they even do not know how their personal information can be used by the
various browsers for their personal benefits. It is the reality that many privacy and surfing
issues are still non-regulated and user needs more privacy and safety while using Internet.
The major area of complain that is used by the browsers to still personal information
of use is clickstream data. The browser traced the click path or clickstreams of users that
comprises some essential data and information about the user’s personal surfing pattern. The
browsers use this clickstream of users and provide them anonymous advertisings that will be
based on their past searches on the Internet (Fortes & Rita, 2016). It has been seen that
browsers use the searching patter of users. However, the roles of Internet Service Providers
are still under question because it is not possible unless the ISP or company that provides
information to the user by IP address discloses the information public. In the era of
ecommerce, there are huge number of cases registered when people was victimised by the
online companies by stealing the information of their users by using their personal banking
information of stealing their credit or debit card information. These online companies are
equally responsible in cheating customers because they store the information related to
banking details of user on their portal and can easily access them when needed (Lutz,
Hoffmann, Bucher, & Fieseler, 2018).

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First Case Study on Online Privacy
The recent case was of Facebook, when Cambridge Analytica used the personal
information of millions of Facebook users to influence the Presidential election of America
(Cecere, Le-Guel, & Soulié, 2015). The incident shows the poor security and management of
Facebook when large numbers of Facebook users lost their personal information because of
that data breach. It means one can easily breach the security of service providers like
Facebook that promised for a strong data security and privacy arrangement for its users.
Large numbers of users lost their person financial information or their money from their bank
accounts because when they store the data at somewhere, it was hacked by the other parties to
theft the money of users. Many incidents in the past were happened where people lost their
money or crucial information from their computers because of the loose privacy
arrangements of their service providers (Bergström, 2015). Most of the people or expert
belief that Internet was designed to research wide range of information and it is an open
research tool. That is why it is not designed to allow privacy or security to the users.
However, at the same time Internet provides anonymity. Almost 95% of world population
access internet in the second decade of 21st century and very few of them knows that how
their personal information is used by the companies for the person benefits such as
advertising, accessing information, using their information for survey, or even influencing the
election of a country.
Second Case Study
It has been found that almost 38% people use Internet for accessing health
information, family information, personal photographs of videos, or financial information on
internet and they save it online clouds and using original data such as personal mail id, date
of birth, tax information, annual salary etc. for accessing information and it was saved by
website or portals. Here lack of knowledge is the major concern where users lost their

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personal information of become victim of hacking of their personal information or their bank
accounts (Choi, Park, & Jung, 2018). However, the most of the cases related to privacy
concern has been seen from the cyber-criminals who hack the accounts of users and access
their money and personal information. However, the Internet-illiteracy of people and lack of
knowledge about the Internet security cannot be ignored because it is also responsible of theft
of personal information and data. However, it can also be noticeable that privacy concerns do
not always be raised because of the privacy concerns rather sometimes the mistakes of users
and unsafe browsing or week password is also responsible for the privacy issues. Accessing
data from the Internet is really easy for the people through their digital devices like mobile
phones and laptops but it is a major concern that large numbers of mobile phones and laptops
were theft by the people or even people lost it, which is the major cause of data theft or theft
of personal information (Millham & Atkin, 2018).
The major concern of users is unauthorised access of their account and using their
personal information and sharing the information by third party due to security breaches. This
issue is generally found in the e-commerce business providers who use the intellectual
property of customers and sell them for their personal benefits to other parties. However, this
is possible when people save their credentials with the browser and also share their banking
information with the e-commerce company for future convenience or purchasing on the same
site (Gurung & Raja, 2016). It has been also found that people use the same password for the
multiple of e-commerce sites, which can easily be accessed by the third party. However, it
can be said that security and privacy of users is a major concern over e-commerce sites. The
user must know about the basic etiquettes of using Internet and must follow the guidelines
while using the sensitive data and information over internet or storing credentials over any e-
commerce companies. It has been also seen that guess about the password is in common
practice and a small of basic details such as date of birth, pet name, or such type of common

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passwords can easily be tracked over Internet. Therefore, it is also required for the users to
use a difficult level of password for their account, which cannot be access by anyone by
guess method (Chen, Beaudoin, & Hong, 2017).
Conclusion
In conclusion, Internet is a tool that provides easy communication and sharing of data
to one people to another people and to one place to another place, but unfortunately it is not
the safest one. Every day people lost their crucial personal information and facing security
threats on the Internet when people Internet. The major cause of online privacy is related to
lack of Internet awareness among the users while the second major issue is related to sharing
sensitive data over the Internet. Spying and snooping is the second major issue that causes
online privacy issue for the people. However, the one, which is more common in Internet
practices, is related to E-commerce service providers because they are responsible for
misusing the user’s information and disseminate the sensitive data of users to other parties. It
has been found that most of the time the personal information saved by the users on Internet
is not encrypted and can be access and used by anyone. Apart from this, the modern banks
and online transactions also increase the risks of online privacy. However, to avoid privacy
issue on internet, people need to aware about the basic etiquettes of Internet use and must try
to make confidential about their secret information on Internet, such as banks details,
financial information, personal information, medical information etc.

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References
Lutz, C., Hoffmann, C. P., Bucher, E., & Fieseler, C. (2018). The role of privacy concerns in
the sharing economy. Information, Communication & Society, 21(10), 1472-1492.
Anic, I. D., Škare, V., & Milaković, I. K. (2019). The determinants and effects of online
privacy concerns in the context of e-commerce. Electronic Commerce Research and
Applications, 100868.
Choi, H., Park, J., & Jung, Y. (2018). The role of privacy fatigue in online privacy
behavior. Computers in Human Behavior, 81, 42-51.
Millham, M. H., & Atkin, D. (2018). Managing the virtual boundaries: Online social
networks, disclosure, and privacy behaviors. New Media & Society, 20(1), 50-67.
Carpenter, D., McLeod, A., Hicks, C., & Maasberg, M. (2018). Privacy and biometrics: An
empirical examination of employee concerns. Information Systems Frontiers, 20(1),
91-110.
Bergström, A. (2015). Online privacy concerns: A broad approach to understanding the
concerns of different groups for different uses. Computers in Human Behavior, 53,
419-426.
Chen, H., Beaudoin, C. E., & Hong, T. (2017). Securing online privacy: An empirical test on
Internet scam victimization, online privacy concerns, and privacy protection
behaviors. Computers in Human Behavior, 70, 291-302.
Gurung, A., & Raja, M. K. (2016). Online privacy and security concerns of
consumers. Information & Computer Security, 24(4), 348-371.

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Fortes, N., Rita, P., & Pagani, M. (2017). The effects of privacy concerns, perceived risk and
trust on online purchasing behaviour. International Journal of Internet Marketing and
Advertising, 11(4), 307-329.
Fortes, N., & Rita, P. (2016). Privacy concerns and online purchasing behaviour: Towards an
integrated model. European Research on Management and Business
Economics, 22(3), 167-176.
Cecere, G., Le-Guel, F., & Soulié, N. (2015). Perceived Internet privacy concerns on social
networks in Europe. Technological Forecasting and Social Change, 96, 277-287.