Friday, March 7, 2014

Internet Privacy and False Advertising

As stated in the article, surveys have shown that numerous amounts of Internet users are concerned with privacy. And they should be. Over the past few years, companies have developed software that can collect all the data from your personal profiles, which include Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, etc. They can use these to collect all of your pictures, posts, and so on to put a collective profile of your Internet use to use for job applications. This is not stated in the article, but a friend of mines that I grew up with Dad knows some of these software developers and has warned us to be extra cautious about what is posted on these social media networks, whether it is blocked or not. They have a way to get around that.

Past that, the article talks a lot about trust within website design to ensure members of the site that their information is safe and sound. This can be done through a professional layouts, contact information to make the website seem more personal, links to outside sources, etc. A privacy statement or privacy seal may also be used to present a more secure network within a website. Tests and surveys have shown that only the presence of these statements will make the website seem more safe, but it is merely a scheme, for lack of a better term, to persuade the users of the website to have more trust. Trust will always bring more followers than when there is none to be found.


My question is, do you think websites should be able to falsely advertise their site as secure even when it might not be? And what ways could we fight against this tactic to truly make our personal profiles with information that you and only selected individuals can view?

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