Internet Privacy

Internet privacy refers to the concept of being able to use the Internet for surfing, communicating, playing games, emailing or doing e-commerce without having one’s privacy or security compromised.

It is now possible to buy almost anything online, from groceries to electronics. Massively multiplayer online games (MMOGs) have made it possible for players across various continents to play the same game. Instant messaging (IM) also means that people can communicate across different time zones. All these products and tools contribute to the vast amount of data, a lot of it private, which is present online. To provide more personalized services, e-commerce and social networking Web sites also collect a large amount of data from their customers and users. Besides customization information, personal information, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers and financial information is also stored by these websites. Concerns abound that data could be misused by these organizations.

To allay these fears, many Web sites now make it a point to provide users with their privacy policies.

Tools are available both online and offline to improve Internet privacy. Please see the linked encyclopedia entries below for more detailed information.

• Anonymous email and surfing utilities enable users to hide their true identities while surfing or sending email.
• Cookie scrubber remove cookies and browser history to clean traces of surfing behavior.
• Pop-up blockers prevent pop-ups in the browser during surfing.
• Secure IM clients prevent eavesdropping when using instant messaging.
• Email signing and encryption tools allow secure transmission of email.
• Secure remote login tools allow access to remote computers without compromising user security or privacy.
• Firewalls prevent unwanted and unauthorized connections into and out of computers.
• Intrusion detections tools determine if a system has been compromised and send out alarms.
• Password security tools make it easy for users to create and remember passwords for various services.