In today’s world, people tend to run majority of their daily errands through the internet. It is easy, convenient, and it saves a lot of time. In one hour someone can make a deposit in his personal bank account, order a medical prescription, pay bills, apply for a loan, get some shopping, and more. All it takes for a customer to be able to do this is having an account with each of this company’s websites. Creating an account is usually a very simple process where the person provides some information and creates a user name and a password to be able to return to the website. This information provided by the customer is called: digital data or digital information, which is simply any kind of information in digital format. Digital data can be public or private, it can be kept by the government, banks, medical providers, and other institutions; as well as a freely available in the internet in websites like myspace.com, facebook, LinkedIn, etc.
The use of digital data has increased over the years rapidly. Few years ago, the most significant piece of digital data, and sometimes the only one, a person used to have, was his credit report. It was available on the internet to financial institutions, which used it to determine if the individual was credit worthy or not. Today, we are part of a digital society, where digital data is created every day by people, sometimes without even realizing it. Now, our digital profile is not only a bunch of numbers in our credit report, it is a more logistical report, that contains personal information, professional history, previous events in our live, financial situation, etc. And like everything else, it can be used for legal purposes as well as some illegal ones.
Marketing companies are one example of a proper use of it. They acquire and utilize digital data to target specific markets. If for example they need a list of names and addresses of people between 23 and 36 years old, with a large amount of credit; they can obtain it from companies like ChoicePoint, firms dedicated specifically to identify, retrieve, storage, analyze, and deliver the data. (Choice Point, 2002-2008) These companies can provide more than databases, they offer information like background screenings, public records, copies of documents like birth certificates, business credentials, authentication and more. Law enforcement officers, potential employers, financial institutions, and even just regular people use it and find it very helpful.
Each day, billions of people worldwide depend on the security of digital systems. From medical history and test results at a hospital, to financial information and account statements at a bank, or social connections and personal messages on a smart phone, nearly every facet of a person’s life has some component of personal data associated with it that is stored on a computer. Furthermore, new forms of personal data to collect are being identified, gathered, analyzed, and stored all the time. This growth in the collection of personal data is so immense that the amount of digital data in existence approximately doubles every two years, and large companies are responsible for creating about 80% of this data increase (Gantz & Reinsel, 2011).
In our modern society almost every online act is a freedom of a citizen or a professional expression. Some content is stored and kept safe amongst small groups and some is made publicly available. Yet all acts can generate transactional information which can be viewed by many other parties over the web. This m...
We now accept the sharing and digital storage of our personal information as a necessary evil. We continue to incorporate, into our lives, technology that uses this data. Microsoft and Google are envisioning and developing ways to commercialize the use of even more of our stored personal information.
Electronic progress has been miraculous, even exciting, but with it problems evolve. One of the greatest is the threat to people's personal privacy. The Automatic Teller Machine (ATM) was developed in the 1980's to give people an easier way to de posit and withdraw cash that they had in the bank. Everyone who has an account is assigned a secret PIN number, but someone in the bank has access to clients' financial records in the electronic database. Another type of new technology is the ele ctronic tolls used on the nation's highways. Drivers can pay tolls...
Identity theft is a term used for describing criminal that uses individual’s identity without consent. A common crime of identity theft would be identity fraud. Many of the crimes are regularly connected with money-related issues (Reyns, 2013). With technology being commonly used nowadays we are getting more dependent on it for business, financial, medical, and other forms. As a result this became a target for identity thieves as well. The Internet provides us information and accessibility, but information being stored on the Internet eas...
Advances in new technology have come to define the modern world; super-efficient cars, computers capable of blistering speeds, and smartphones with access to any information in an instant are now a part of normal life in the 21st century. With all this new technology, new problems arise that we have no experience solving. Big Data usage has become a very controversial topic within America and around the world. Big Data is defined as, “The collection and analysis of enormous amounts of data by super computers, often in real time” (Price). The use of big data by the Government and corporations has many positive uses, but it is at the cost of our private information; at what point do the pro’s outweigh the con’s, and how does privacy play a role in this modern age of big data? The Government as well as large corporations can have access to text messages, phone calls, browsing histories, and even facial recognition for those with social media accounts. This data can be provided for multiple governmental and commercial uses. We first must look into what big data is specifically to better understand, than address the privacy issues involved and how they affect us. The government needs to regulate big data and be transparent with their policies in order to create a solution for the issues at stake.
Data encryption refers to the process of transforming electronic information into a scrambled form that can only be read by someone who knows how to translate the code. In nowadays business world, it’s the easiest and most practical way to secure the information that we stored and processed, and it’s significant for our sensitive information. For example, as electronic commerce is popular now, the vendors and retailers must protect the customers’ personal information from hackers or competitors. They also have many business files or contracts that need to be strictly protected. Without data encryption, these important information may fall into wrong hands and be misused by others. Besides, data encryption may be used to secure sensitive information that exists on company networks, or create digital signatures, and help to authorize in business. No one should underestimate the importance of encryption. A little mistake in encryption may make sensitive information revealing, or even result in illegal and criminal accuse.
Digital technology has been revolutionizing the world step by step over the past couple of years. The manner in which people interact, communicate and carry out their daily activities has been the highest priority of technological inventions. The internet, for example has caused major changes to the lives of individuals, corporations and the whole world as a whole. There is however some rising concerns over the effects of digital technology on contemporary culture. Today, people have turned out to be more information oriented than before. Exploring deeper and exposing personal information has not only become an obsession, but also a requirement in some quarters. Privacy is therefore one of the main aspects that digital technology has greatly affected in today’s information-oriented society.
Data acquisition is the process of copying data. For computer forensics, it’s the task of collecting digital evidence from electronic media. There are two types of data acquisition: static acquisitions and live acquisitions.
Computers can also tie information together in an impersonal and systematic way that can lead to invasions of privacy. Take for example the situation wh...
Databases are becoming as common in the workplace as the stapler. Businesses use databases to keep track of payroll, vacations, inventory, and a multitude of other taske of which are to vast to mention here. Basically businesses use databases anytime a large amount of data must be stored in such a manor that it can easily be searched, categorized and recalled in different means that can be easily read and understood by the end user. Databases are used extensively where I work. In fact, since Hyperion Solutions is a database and financial intelligence software developing company we produce one. To keep the material within scope I shall narrow the use of databases down to what we use just in the Orlando office of Hyperion Solutions alone.
The world is changing rapidly. There used to be a time when we could be confident that no one could learn too much about our personal lives. There used to be a time when information was merely a way of keeping records. That time is gone and with it went a large amount of what we might call our personal privacy. Information about our personal lives has now become one of the most valued resources on the market today. The explosion of the computer and communications industries has created a system that can store vast amounts of data on an individual and transmit that information almost anywhere in a negligible amount of time. More and more people are gaining access to this information and the government has been too slow to react to the changes. As a result, employers, insurance agencies, law enforcement officers, and researchers are all lobbying for legislation that would establish clear rules for the access to this information. Each of these groups stand to gain enormous benefits from legitimizing access to a broad base of personal information. This information will be organized into vast databases that will be maintained by the government, credit report agencies, the health care industry, and employers. The system will come to contain information on virtually every aspect of our lives, the data will be quickly and efficiently transferred around the globe via the arising Global Information Infrastructure, and paper records sitting in file cabinets will become a thing of the past. However, considering current trends, what may be missed the most from the old system are the locks on those old, rusted file cabinets. This new system allows for a lot of access to previously confidential files and we are already seeing the negative effects that this system has produced. For example, employers and insurance companies have begun to discriminate against individuals based on samplings of a person’s or fetus’s DNA. As genetic testing and the human genome project advance, there will be an even greater opportunity for discrimination based on characteristics or conditions that may, or may not, arise in an individual's future. To provide a background to the discussion, this report will establish who has access to what information today.
As we evolve in the information age, online privacy rights have grown over the past years. In 1986, a federal law was passed to protect an individual’s electronical information. “This law was produced to make a fair balance among the privacy expectations of citizens and the legitimate needs of law enforcement” (EPIC). With the Internet developing intensely, there is a great deal at stake such as the theft of your identification. But where it all begins is when you access the Internet. This is the first step in being aware of your privacy because you go through the process in signing up with an Internet Service Provider (ISP). With this process you have a IP address attached to your ISP. This is the primary step on how your information starts
Privacy and security of personal data is one of the most difficult challenges that businesses dealing in e-commerce venture face in today’s global world. Though these business sites have little or no interest in private and personal information of the users, but the information collected by them can however lead to risks. The personal information is often provided by users actively and voluntarily such as names, email ids, physical addresses or even credit card information. Though in some cases information is passively passed on by users and even sites to third party, for example some of site banner ads allow third party advertisers to track users browsing habits. But most often websites gather and use the data containing individual’s information without even their knowledge. Main concern of e-commerce business ventures in today’s world is lower the liability risk in regards to the site’s personal information collection practices. In order to achieve the desired success they should constantly determine and examine what kind of information is being collected by the site and should constantly develop privacy policy statement in order to protect the information. Among many aspects of crime on the information superhighway, electronic vandalism, theft, money laundering, electronic vandalism, illegal interception, electronic funds transfer crimes are some examples. In the following paper more insight on privacy issue. Some of these issues, available options and risks surrounded are further highlighted.
Many individuals use the Internet strictly for work, information and entertainment.They do not engage in online criminal activity nor do they readily provide personal information. Cautious about what they do supply, individuals seek security by enabling passwords and secret answers. The Internet may even appear to be safe even though there is little regulation and no legal boundaries. Unfortunately, identity theft on the Internet is simple, straightforward and the victim is generally completely unaware and oblivious to the...