A lot of the time people are un-knowingly agreeing to allow websites and companies to install cookies or claim the rights to the information or pictures they upload. Facebook sort of indirectly claims the rights to your photos as you can see by reading their terms, “By posting User Content to any part of the Site, you automatically grant, and you represent and warrant that you have the right to grant, to the Company an irrevocable, perpetual, non-exclusive, transferable, fully paid, worldwide license (with the right to sublicense) to use, copy, publicly perform, publicly display, reformat, translate, excerpt (in whole or in part) and distribute such User Content for any purpose, commercial, advertising, or otherwise, on or in connection with the Site or the promotion thereof, to prepare derivative works of, or incorporate into other works, such User Content, and to grant and authorize sublicenses of the foregoing.” They also note that if you delete your account the above statement will expire but Facebook will still have archived data from you. Facebook does give its users the option to make their profiles private so that only their friends can view their info.
Sears has been under much scrutiny from the public and anti-spyware eye. A little while back in 2008 they encouraged online users to join the “Sears Holdings Community”. When joining the community they are asked to install software that is really spyware. This spyware monitors their Internet usage including logging onto bank accounts (Vamosi, 2008). The one thing the people failed to notice when check the “accept the terms” box was that they were actually agreeing to this. I can’t believe that in today’s society large companies like Sears Holding Corp. would try to undermine their customers in such a way. The customers are the most important thing to the company so why lose their trust like that? Sears settled charges brought upon them by federal authorities for being found guilty of being deceiving and not making it clear enough that they were in fact installing spyware on your computer. Ben Edelman, a Harvard University Professor who is a frequent critic of spyware companies said, "Sears to their credit fixed many of the most egregious problems after public concern” (Goodin, 2009).
Ken Denmead said he feels as if younger groups seem to care less and less about online privacy, however a new study on behavioral advertising states that it is exactly this age group (18-24) who care the most (Denmead, 2009). There is such thing as the Fair Information Practices (FIP) which is regulated by the FTC. This is meant to protect online users from getting their information stolen. It touches on subjects such as users being able to find out what info is being kept, information not being used improperly, info not being kept secret and info not being misused (Denmead, 2009).
I think online security is very important. I feel like the situation is getting increasingly worse with the amount of spam and phishing occurring through e-mail. Phishing as explained on webopedia is “The act of sending an e-mail to a user falsely claiming to be an established legitimate enterprise in an attempt to scam the user into surrendering private information that will be used for identity theft.” I think the FTC really needs to crack down on online privacy and help keep unsuspected users safe.
Works Cited
Denmead, Ken. "Is Online Privacy a Generational Issue? GeekDad Wired.com." Wired News. 1 Oct. 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.
Goodin, Dan. "US mega retailer settles spyware charges • The Register." The Register: Sci/Tech News for the World. 4 June 2009. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.
Vamosi, Robert. "Spyware found in Sears online community installation News Blog - CNET News." Technology News - CNET News. 3 Jan. 2008. Web. 18 Nov. 2009.
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