The Internet has become the major hub for information and communication, with different types of new networking platforms being developed . Social media sites like Facebook, MySpace, LinkedIn, and Twitter are now playing vital roles in a lot of people's day to day lives. Thereby making online privacy issues a critical problem today.
So how can you use the internet and not worry about online privacy problems?
I would suggest before signing with any social network site always read its conditional terms and privacy policy. Although reading these terms, conditions and privacy policy could be so long , you could find a summarized version just by using Google or bing. Doing this will inform you if your private information is safe or not safe.
Every time you upload your personal information such as full birth date, street address pictures, schools attended, work place and phone number to your profile online, always bear in mind that this can be viewed by anyone in any part of the world. The idea of uploading your funny pictures, party pictures, adventurous pictures unto MySpace or Facebook might not be a good idea. Why because,
(1) Anyone can go online (and potentially access your information): your family, your friends, your colleagues, your potential employers... and total strangers! Consider the Web as a public place
(2) Identity theft is made easier for identity thieves just by telling what kind of person you are
So What is Online behavioral marketing?
This is basically tracking the activities of customers online, activities such as what website he/she loves to shop, what airlines he or she travels with, what rental services they use, what music they play frequently etc thus allowing businesses to deliver direct advertisement that suits their interests. they working mechanism behind this is by using cookies, these cookies are small text files with a unique ID tag that is saved on your computer's web browser whenever you visit a website. Those cookies are now used to monitor frequent visits to websites, track how much time is spent on the websites etc.
There are other monitoring tools marketers use such as web-bug. Web bugs are used in conjunction with computer cookies to build profiles of a person's web surfing habits, keeping a running log of sites the person has visited with contents of the pages viewed. Surfing profiles can span days, weeks, months and even years. These Direct marketing techniques like surveys requesting a user for account information could also be used for future transactions which is not uncommon. Signing up for online services, e-mail, instant messaging, personal websites, blogs etc. Consumers signing up for all these make themselves vulnerable and their personal information susceptible to being used by these online customer information trackers.
Some Useful Preventive Measures
1. Always Keep your computer’s software patched and up-to-date. Make sure you do all relevant security updates and keep your anti-virus up to date.
2. Only download updates from reputable sources
3. Always think before you install anything, weigh the risks and benefits, and be aware of the fine print. Do not install anything from a website that doesn’t look legitimate and be aware of your internet surroundings
4. Installing spywares and using firewalls
6. Prevention is always better than cure; do your best to protect your system from vulnerabilities and don't open yourself up to malware.
Being aware of how internet marketers, and advertisers siphon personal info out of social networks like Facebook (data mining) through the use of Third party apps and ads. and also know the extent of how sophisticated hackers and criminals who know how to manipulate any social media sites like MySpace, Twitter, Facebook, or any other social networking apps can come up with in the way of privacy protection.
Well I have chosen to never post anything online that is truly "private & personal" . I never use third party applications. I hardly visit gaming sites, free download sites, peer-to-peer etc. I don't click on everything I see. For example: I never click adverts on any blog or on social networking sites.
My best advice is that if you don’t want your personal and private information to be either shared or siphoned out of your social networking accounts then don’t post it. Don't use the third party applications. Don't click the ads and don't play online games.
The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) Proposing an Online Behavioral Advertising Privacy Principles
The purpose of this proposal is to encourage more meaningful and enforceable self-regulation to address the privacy concerns raised with respect to behavioral advertising. The proposal states that behavioral advertising provides benefits to consumers in the form of free content and personalized advertising but notes that this practice is largely invisible and unknown to consumers.
FTC proposes:
1. Every Web site where data is collected for behavioral advertising should provide a clear, consumer-friendly, and prominent statement that data is being collected to provide ads targeted to the consumer and give consumers the ability to choose whether or not to have their information collected for such purpose
2. Any company that collects or stores consumer data for behavioral advertising should provide reasonable security for that data and should retain data only as long as is necessary to fulfill a legitimate business or law enforcement need.
3. Companies should obtain affirmative express consent from affected consumers before using data in a manner materially different from promises the company made when it collected the data.
4. Companies should only collect sensitive data for behavioral advertising if they obtain affirmative express consent from the consumer to receive such advertising.
Useful links
