Privacy of the Internet

Background

In the 21^st century, most of the people are using the Internet for both work and pleasure. Internet users post their information on sites as they interact. Those who post the information lose control over the information once they post it. The information partially becomes the property of the sites. Trying to delete the information does not really help to get rid of it. The sites can retrieve the information whenever they want to. The advancement of technology with many intelligent mobile devices makes the Internet ubiquitous.

 The nature of the Internet poses a major threat to privacy of information. Some people say that it is impossible to remove something one has posted on the Internet. Scott McNealy, who founded Sun Microsystems, says that Internet users have zero privacy. McNealy further says that people should get used to it as it is never going to change (Brown, 2006). The aim of this paper is to analyze McNealy’s statement.

Nowadays, the government and other organizations are moving from physical surveillance of people to surveillance using technological devices. The organizations are using data systems to investigate and monitor communication and actions of different people. The organizations get the information from various sources, sometimes without the knowledge of the person. For example, an organization can trail on a person’s activities by getting information on the increasing social networks like Facebook. When a person updates a status on Facebook, it shows what that person is currently doing (Brown, 2006).

 Smart Cards and online purchasing of items are the norm in modern world. The information that a person gives during such transactions is traceable and contributes to information security threat. Companies send spams to people through email, which may be a spyware (Brown, 2006).

Conclusion

A person may improve on the privacy by being alert when using the Internet. A person should be careful on the information he posts on the Internet and the people he is posting to. Alertness however, cannot eliminate the risk. The conclusion, therefore, is that the statement by McNealy is correct by saying that there is zero privacy.