The popularity of social networking encourages users to share personal information with many people, not only with their personal acquaintances. In order to widen their circle of “friends”, they literally open themselves up to the entire internet community. It is observed that privacy is no longer as important as it used to be. Additional technology is always becoming available and this makes data sharing easier and more exciting.

There are interesting facts behind those who use Facebook. There are about 800 million users, and they can be categorized into three groups. The first group of users includes those who use it at least once daily. The second group consists of those who use it at least once a week. The third group is comprised of the members who use it less often than once a week. A telephone survey of 2,000 adult respondents was just conducted involving the use of Facebook. The survey focused on how often these respondents think of their privacy in connection with social networking.

The overall result of the survey showed that the more users sign on to Facebook, the less they become concerned about privacy invasion. One respondent candidly said that he does not really care if people know about his online preferences or habits. This user admits that he uses Facebook several times a day, either to connect with his friends, or to play a popular Facebook-based game.

It used to be that collecting personal information from users on the internet seemed normal. There were no questions asked as to why it was being done, or for what purpose it would be used. Users would unquestioningly provide their names and email addresses when they registered on a certain website. Later, social networking sites would ask users to give more sensitive personal information. Even then, users uploaded their data to different web companies without having any privacy concerns.

Things changed when targeted advertising was popularized by some online companies. They used this collected personal information to send advertisements to users. From shared data, these companies accumulated enough information that they could build profiles of users. Privacy advocates came in and told people to be more careful when sharing their personal information. In spite of serious consumer education regarding this issue, more privacy concerns and problems appeared.

A time came when websites presented their privacy policies to users without hiding anything. They gave people the choice of whether or not to share their personal information. There are companies that openly tell their users why they are collecting this information, but with technology that is continuously improving, more subtle ways of data gathering are invented.

With the disturbing privacy problems that never sleep, lawmakers are looking for more ways to better protect children. There is an existing law that specifies protection for children when they go online. Businesses are required to follow special rules when they collect and use personal information from children. Lawmakers have always taken a diverging stand on this issue. The members of the U.S. House Energy and Commerce are not in agreement on deciding whether there should be another legislation that gives special protection for kids aged 13 to 17 years old.

The provisions of the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) contain special requirements for websites that allow access to children under 13 years old. Before they can collect, use or disclose kids’ personal information, these websites must get a parent’s permission. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposes to amend the meaning of personal information. Its new version would already include geolocation data, and identifiers such as cookies.

There are two sides of opinion regarding the extension of coverage of teenagers in COPPA.
Those who push for more privacy say that Congress should take into account the need to have special protection for teens to expand its privacy legislation. A more radical legislation was proposed by representatives from at least two states. They want websites to be barred from tracking children while they are online.

In addition to the issue of GPS tracking and anonymity in public places, there is the other issue of online surveillance. People resisted the use of GPS technology for tracking people unless there is a proper warrant. It is possible to lose one’s privacy when the Court decides to allow GPS tracking by the police. This means that no one will be exempt from being watched when they are in public places.

People in the virtual space, especially in social networks, might also lose their anonymity. Using the so-called online surveillance technology, it is easy to monitor “movements” of people in the virtual space. One such kind of technology is Facebook’s face-recognition, which it announced last June. In simple terms, this technology allows the scanning of all photos found in its database and attaching the names of users to them. Then all images of each user are automatically tagged and matched with other images that are found anywhere else. Granting that the user used his or her real name as required, he or she can be indentified and located.

The technology described in the prior paragraph can be used by the police to identify anonymous criminals. All they need to do is post the image of the anonymous suspect on Facebook. With the tagging system, he or she can be instantly identified. However, Facebook received a public protest against the use of this “automatic tagging” technology. The company ended up giving users the alternative to opt out of this system instead of “forcing” it on all of them.

Privacy concerns were heightened after another breach against patients’ hospital records was committed. It was found that thousands of emergency room patients’ information was posted on an internet site. A New York Times confirmed report said that the data belonged to Stanford Hospital in California. Still, it cannot be determined how this data was stolen or who stole it.

It was only last month when the breach was discovered, but the information has been on a commercial website for almost a year already. It was also confirmed that the information first appeared on that website on September 9, 2010. Consequently, it is not easy for hospital officials to tell precisely who committed the crime. Because there are many third parties who can actually have access to this hospital data, an investigation has to be conducted.

There are already laws that require companies to publicly disclose any data breach. In the hope that the laws would be effective, heavy fines are also imposed. Experts on medical security blame the incident on the presence of too many outside contractors that gain access to private hospital information.

With the increase in data breach cases, businesses have to do something when their customers’ email addresses are stolen or lost. Such incidents might involve legal obligation to immediately inform their customers about the data breach. This new development in the privacy arena is a kind of wake-up call to businesses and CIOs.

Policies are changing in the way businesses are held liable for the protection of personal information. There is an extended range for the requirement of public disclosure for data breaches. It is happening so fast that it seems difficult for many businesses to keep up. They are one in raising the question about which kind of data breach legally needs public disclosure.

Some time ago, businesses and CIOs were only concerned with “personally identifiable information”. This means that if a company does not collect information that can identify or be traced back to a person, it has no obligation to disclose any loss of customer data. But when a business gathers customer data such as bank account number, Social Security number, medical information and more, that company has the duty to notify the owner of the information of any data breach.

Today’s school curriculum includes some amount of internet access to students as part of the learning experience. To make sure that children stay within the safe parameters, each school issues an Internet Acceptable Use Policy. Parents and students, at the beginning of the school year, are required to sign this document. It contains and explains what the school expects of its students regarding internet use. It also enumerates the rules on how students should behave online along with the corresponding consequences of abuse.

Aside from the rules, the rights of staff members and students in using the school’s internet facilities might also be included. As a rule, all Acceptable Use Policies recognize the rights of students to benefit from technology and prevent issues of privacy. Parents need to play an important role to strengthen its implementation. They should know what goes on in school and how children are going to use the internet. To avoid unfounded fears, they should recognize that children are using it within the bounds of safety.

Parents should take time to talk about the policy with their children. Some students do not possess the maturity to fully grasp the meaning of these policies by themselves. Special attention should be given to those that might seem safe but are actually prohibited. Are there special rules when it comes to using emails? What constitutes a violation falling under harassment? Are students allowed to visit file-sharing sites or download music? What punishment would students face for cyber-bullying using the school’s computers? Parents should compare their children’s typical use of the internet at home against those things that are banned at school.

For years, Here and there, users have hurled privacy issue accusations against Facebook. They are demanding features that do not loosen the users’ privacy control. While Facebook is trying to improve users’ experience, problems have aroused concern regarding content sharing. In response to these issues, the company continuously tries to allow users win back their privacy. Some of these attempts were successful, but others have drawn even more protests.

Facebook has just announced that it will give users more privacy control over content. Users can expect that these features will be rolled out soon, and they will be given a chance to try them when they become available. The new privacy policies will generally make it a lot easier for users to understand exactly what people online will see about them and their posts.

Without much fuss, users can quickly know who can see all that they post. Users can also choose to block unwanted photos, and those items that are tagged by others if they don’t want them. Facebook expects that by changing some of the terms on the page, users will have less confusion. Most users used to think that “everyone” meant everyone on the social networking site, but it actually meant all people on the internet.

Users should be aware that whenever they go online, somebody is watching them. Big and small companies use updated technology just to be able to keep track of users’ internet activities. Users should also know that these companies do this tracking because of its commercial potential. Trackers watch which sites does a user visit, how long the user stays there, and what pages he or she visits during his or her stay. They are also interested in what kinds of posts users are interested in, and read any posts that they leave.

Tracking is done mainly with the help of HTTP cookies. These are little packets of information that save the user’s preferences. Cookies had been originally intended to improve a user’s browsing experience. With their preferences stored, users do not have to input their basic information, like username or password, every time they visit the same site.

The idea of using cookies to store private information has sparked privacy concerns, so browsers have provided options for users to decide whether or not they want cookies to be stored. A user can simply delete cookies whenever he or she does not need them anymore. In other words, users have absolute control over their private information.

Parents who have children with easy access to the internet should not only look at the downside of it. The good sides of the internet are far reaching when used properly. Actually, it can help their children achieve more in school. In fact, schools have started using this technology to improve learning in many ways. That is why parents should refrain from speaking badly of the internet without considering the benefits that it can give to their children.

A better way for parents to understand what is happening is to involve themselves with the internet activities of their children. On their own, parents can try some basic recommendations. Before anything else, they should teach themselves about the internet, or, better yet, learn about it from their children. When properly done, this can be an opportunity for bonding. This is important especially when it comes to teenagers, who are starting to seek independence. When parents are sincere in wanting to learn from their children, the experience becomes a boost to the child’s self esteem.

Such an experience, when repeated over a period of time, will develop trust. Internet safety rules can come in when parents sense the right time for them to talk about it. When that time would come depends a lot on the age level of the child. As parents, they should know when this would come about, as they know with other areas of their experiences. They should, however, try hard to make sure that the trust built between them and their children is neither broken nor compromised.