internet privacy is it safe

Internet Privacy: Is the Internet Really Safe?

With every generation, they bring with them a new invention, to advance us both

technologically and scientifically, and thus make life better for us all. Technology, as defined in

the New Lexicon Webster’s Dictionary of the English Language, is "the science of technical

processes in a wide, though related field of knowledge”. Technology, then can be anything as long

as it helps us advance in some way. The technology of the 21st Century is the Internet or cyber

space. The Internet was invented in the late 1960s. Back then, the Department of Defense called it

ARPAnet (Advanced Research Projects Agency network) and it was intended to link research

facilities, defense contractors, and government agencies. The first public demonstration of

ARPAnet was in 1972 and technicians proudly displayed a network that connected 50 universities

and research facilities. Today there are millions of computers on the Internet. Electronic mail

(e-mail) and Usenet (short for "user network") news groups were the first applications. Telnet

gave a researcher on one campus the ability to use a computer on another campus. The University

of Minnesota developed a "gopher" program to help users find information and "go for" it.

Forerunners of today’s Web-based search engines included Archie and Veronica. Those who

named the services were at least inventive. The classified ARPAnet spawned an unclassified

Milnet — together known as DARPAnet. In the late 1980s, the National Science Foundation built

NSFnet. The National Aeronautics and Space Administration cobbled together a network. These,

and a variety of regional networks, were consolidated to create the Internet under NSF

supervision. Today the government is more or less out of the picture. Local Internet service

providers (ISP) and Internet presence providers (IPP) collect fees from users and

pay network operato...

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... might be as simple as preserving your right to express unpopular

opinions without being subjected to persecution, or as serious as communicating sensitive

business information, revealing credit card numbers, legal discussions with your accountant, or

keeping your true identity from a secret government. Regardless of your reasons, privacy is your

right. Contrary to what some governing bodies might want the public to believe, not all those

concerned with security and privacy are hackers or terrorists.

In conclusion, despite its size and rapid growth, the Web is still in its infancy. We are just

beginning to learn how to develop more secure software and we are beginning to understand that

for our future online, we need to incorporate security into the basic underpinnings of everything

we develop. Today, no one method of Internet security can stop a hacker from intruding on our

privacy. Our goal as time goes on and we increase our technological knowledge of the

Internet, should be to raise our standards of security in everything we do whether on our personal

computers or while surfing on the Internet.