The average consumer believes their web browsing is a private affair,
but just step into the headquarters of Google and see the computer
screens avidly displaying the words being typed into the company's
search engines and we know that its not.

Increasingly governments around the world are attempting to gain
access into users online histories. Couple that with a series of
public security breaches and consolidation among the major online
search and advertising groups and Internet Privacy is now in the
spotlight. Yahoo, Google, Microsoft and Ask.com are now stepping up
to the plate and enforcing stricter measures to protect consumers.
Google gave offered to delete stored information that could tie
search information to consumers after 18 months instead of storing it
indefinitely. Ask.com have offered users the choice to opt out of
having the search information recorded in the first place. Micorosft
have been lobbying the US Congress for a comprehensive online privacy
law so companies can rebuild consumer confidence. Google have even
demanded that international online privacy rules be administered by
the United Nations despite sound guildelines being adopted by the
Organisation for Economic Cooperation and Development in 1980.

Today, search companies regularly record the queries posted by
internet users. The time is logged, the date and the identity of the
computer used to submit the request. Most also plant cookies - small
bits of text used to track a user from website to website - on their
computers. Coupled together, these provide a comprhensive dossier of
a users web browsing and search habits. AOL made a fatal mistake last
year when it publicly released the data of 600,000 of its users to
"help" researchers working on ways to improve their query results.
Overnight, sites that had popped up enabling people to mine the data
highlighted that users could be identified from their search queries
and the result was a PR disaster.

With the threat of world terrorism still lingering, governments and
intelligence agencies lay claim to having access as mission
imperative. But what about corporates ? Just how far will internet
groups go to collect and use data on their members and is security
and privacy relating to credit card details and financial information
adequate enough a measure? Google's proposed purchase of DoubleClick,
the worlds biggest online advertising network revives concerns about
behavioural targeting. Why am I now being served fashion advertising
for breakfast with every one of my morning internet searches? Just
imagine if Google could combinge its knowlege of my search history
with DoubleClick's knowledge of my web browsing habits? One could
almost say they might understand what we are all doing at an
individual level and start hitting us with more sophisticated
marketing techniques.

With three quarters of the worlds countires having no consumer data
protection laws at all, a lawsuit is barely the option for protecting
one's privacy.

Hoever, the issue of people's privacy is not just confined to web
browser companies. The rise of social networking spaces such as Xing,
LinkedIN, MySpace and Facebook have resulted in a flood of
confidential data being made available online, much of it being of a
personal nature. With Facebook touting only 20-25 percent of its
users taking advantage of its privacy controls, one might consider
that the problem stems not from the provider but the consumer.

With identity theft on the rise, and no real solutions to the web
services privacy plight on the horizon, one might consider consumers
might think twice about their online activities.

Average: 8 (1 vote)