The computer was once a tool that was used primarily for entertainment, with a couple of people using them for educational purposes. Soon enough, businesses began to see their potential to be used for mass production and movement of information. Soon after, people began to use them for work and play online, and today they are used for everything.

People check their e-mail online, chat with friends online, do business online, and even bank online. The computer has become a necessary part of every American’s life, and will continue to play a larger role than ever in the apex of the “Information Generation”.

The computer’s hard drive is an indispensable memory. Everything you do is stored in some part of it, and will not be deleted by just a delete function. All of this information can be accessed by people that you wouldn’t permit to do so normally. Don’t fret! You can easily protect yourself; there is a multitude of ways to do so, and many can be done right from home.

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When one uses the Internet, there are tons of little pieces of data that their computer sends out and is recorded by many different indelible sources. While much of this meticulous recording is used for good purposes such as expediting your browsing times, some of the information can be used for more malicious intent.

One aspect of browsing is cookies. Consider the cookie; it a little piece of information that is put on your computer by a website that records your preferences and other small pieces of data. These cookies generally affect you very little and simply restore personalized settings on a website you visit. Some cookies can be a bit more harmful though. These cookies can be intercepted by hackers to track your computer and possibly place viruses or other mal ware on it.

Another thing to consider is a cache system. Long ago, in the dark ages of dial-up and slow connections, a cache saves pieces of a website that you visited and allowed for a quicker load of the website when you next visited it. With part of the website already installed on your computer, you can actually just load it from your memory instead of having to access the Internet, inherently making it faster. This cache system could possibly save websites that you tried to get rid of though, and if someone were to hack into your system they could view these previously thought-to-be deleted sites. Although the cache system is outdated due to the incredible speed of Internet travel today, it is still installed on every computer, simply to create a privacy issue.

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For those of you that don’t know, (where have you been?) Facebook is one of the world’s leading social networking sites, in competition and sometimes cahoots with MySpace. The two sites, who’s concept would have been laughed at years ago, have taken root and flourished in the semi-narcissistic generation today; infamously dubbed the Information Generation. They didn’t get this title for no reason, kids today can use computers much better than their parents, and miles better than their techno-phobic grandparents. These sites allow a youth, (and more recently, every body) to have a place of their own to customize as they wish, and can constantly change to adapt to your every day moods. Perhaps one day you are excited to go to the beach; so your background is all sunlight and tropical themed, while another day your page is plastered in gray, representing your boring day at the office. For some though, the profile capabilities aren’t even the greatest aspect of the site. They just love the fact that nearly everyone is on the site, or some other site, so they can communicate and share pictures with all of their friends from one convenient place, instead of rustling around through an impersonal phone, hoping someone will answer.

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When you buy a computer, you get a bunch of stuff thrown in to increase the chances of a sale. The salesman will usually say that you get a free desktop download, free Internet for a year, free virus protection software, and if they are feeling really ambitious and looking for a sale, they will throw in a free printer. It’s no secret that the stuff they throw in isn’t going to be the nicest or the most expensive in any way, but at least you got something free. This stuff, while usually just being a sales incentive, is actually a good way to get yourself started on Internet protection and privacy, but this is where most people make their fatal mistake.

They get home, excitedly unwrap their new computer, install all of the extra stuff the salesman gave them, and boot it up. Laying off to the side of the mess is the virus program, totally uninstalled and neglected. After being online for months and months, checking spam emails, going on MySpace and FaceBook, they notice their new computer starting to slow down. Well, its not quite new anymore they think; perhaps this just happens when you use computers. After drudging around on their slow computer for a while, they finally reach the catharsis; computer crash. After getting a new computer, the salesman urges the user to install the virus software. Finally, giving in, the downtrodden Internet surfer decides to upload the basis virus protection. They surf for many more months, and the computer is fine. One day though, while checking their online banking statements, the user notices his balance has diminished to an infinitesimal amount overnight. After calling his bank, he asserts he wasn’t the one that made this in exorbitant withdrawal. They deactivate his account and set up a sting to catch the crook. After getting him trying to bring out more money from the user’s account, they ask him how he broke in. Simple he answers, this guy had no protection.

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Internet privacy is one of the most important things you can consider. Think about it; people worry about their house being broken into all of the time. Consider a robber, they don’t just stroll up and down a street late at night and pick a house at random from the many on the block; they do their homework. These robbers will plan and scheme for hours, gathering the right people, finding a good target, and doing some reconnaissance on the target in order to find accessible points of entry. We’ve all seen it in heist-movies: the criminals are not haphazard in the way they plan and execute. They will use a variety of ways to find a good point of entry into the house, and there are a variety of ways.

In today’s technological age, everything is done completely on computers. While school, work, and entertainment first come to mind, crime is on that list as well. As was said before, criminals don’t operate like they used to. Think about terrorism for example. While car bombs and other barbaric means of violence are still prevalent, so is the practice of trying to hack into the United States’ computers, to find weak points in our border.

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The government, and how good it is, has always been a point of contention among debaters and politically minded. The government is an instrument of protection, a diplomatic way of associating with other nations, and a way keeping the peace.

There is another side though described by the anti-government group. They would argue that the reason the Puritans broke away from their mother nation of England is because the king was ruling them with an iron fist, and this stifled their happiness. So after escaping, they wrote up the Constitution, which included strict rights the American people are granted upon citizenship or birth. They say that the government tries to take some of these away, in a corrupt greed for power and control over its citizens, just like England did to us many years ago.

While both sides are simply have opinions, they both hold valid points. First of all, it is easy to see that the government’s primary goal is to ensure and protect the safety of its nation’s people. This is evident on the 911 attacks. Even though the nation did everything they could to keep terrorism to a minimum, it turns out that some crucial figures broke through our defenses and hit us where it hurt. Many people lost their lives in the twin tower massacre, and the ripple effect could be felt in every household. Although we were tough on security before, things got even more intense after 911.

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A social networking site is a web site where people can get together and talk, view each others profiles, and add friends. The premise is simple; get people connected. The sites come stock with a friend adding service, where you can request someone to be your friend and add them to your list for easy navigation back to their page. The commenting and messaging services are offered on almost all sites as well; this allows you to send a private message to someone, or send them a comment that everyone can view and then comment back on. The profile system is perhaps the biggest draw for most people though. This allows you to have your own web page and URL, and personalize it however you wish. There are many sites that will walk you through on how to do so, and if done well, can look quite professional and avant-garde.

While these sites have good intentions, sometimes they can slip up a little. For example, even though the services on the site are free, you will have advertisements wherever you go, and will have to click through one pretty much every time you navigate to a new page. Keep in mind though it is often the users who corrupt the site. The fact that you could easily impersonate anyone lures in many child predators who could easily pose as a friend and arrange a play date in real life. Also, it is quite easy to hack someone’s profile, as their security secret question is usually answered there. If you are wondering what their cat’s name is, you could probably look at their photos, and find one of their “cute cat Maxine.”

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