Online Privacy - Is there any such thing? Part 1

Yes, there are boxes to check and terms of agreement before signing up for most things online. Then you have to type in your user name and a password before accessing information. Thus, one would think your things are secure, however, more and more I am starting to believe that nothing is total secure online. Ok, if you are posting photos up on Flickr, Facebook, or another site with a similar purpose, then you should realize these sites are intended for public sharing. Nevertheless, you are supposed to have some say in who gets to see what. It is not uncommon to hear of unwanted material showing up online nowadays, so I question if the system is working at all. Of course, this could be friends posting something about you that I you did not want posted. I really hate being tagged in a photo and everyone gets to see it before me since I don't go to Facebook everyday. I wondered why Facebook didn't allow the 'tagee' to approve it before being posted.

However, what Facebook recently did is much more serious. How can a company like this decide on its own that it will change the terms of service without consulting with its customers first. These new terms, according to Samantha MacConnel, who wrote the article 'Don't over estimate privacy of online information', would "ensure the site's [Facebook] permanent claim on personal content posted by the user. This would enable Facebook the right to use content even after a person's profile has been deleted." In other words, they own everything you posted and can do with it what they want. It's bad enough that they would have that policy, but what worries me the most is when people signed up initially they agreed to a certain terms of service and Facebook can change that without their consent.

Although, I don't think in today's set up we can ever be completely secure, there are some ways of increasing your online security. Here are 12 ways to increase your online security.


Also check out this video to see what some schools are doing about this problem. "EMPOWER THEM NOW"