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Information Privacy and whether it has changed since the World Wide Web

Information privacy is related to personal data that is usually stored on computers and online servers (Litman, 2000). However, the information that internet users share online is not private as companies use this information or sell it to the other companies and governments who are interested in the information (Litman, 2000). Before the introduction of the internet and possibly the World Wide Web, private information was limited to the owner. Today, technologies used by online companies in tracking up personal information are so advanced that individuals cannot have control of them.

The use of internet is largely restricted to the World Wide Web as all information that is contained online must be retrieved from the web (Culnan, 2000). This information is mostly accessed through search engines and in the process, the search engines are able to record and store your personal information including the content one is browsing, Internet protocol (IP) address, the time of search and other sensitive information that a user is unaware of (Litman, 2000). In spite of search engines having information privacy guidelines, they usually overstep their mandate and misuse the stored personal data.

Principles regarding agency collection of information and the manner and extent they are allowed to use it have been in existence for some time now. The principles require that information agencies should only collect and use information for lawful purposes and if information that is being collected is directly related to the purpose (Solove & Schwartz, 2003). The disclosure of personal and private information of users to other external bodies is addressed in information privacy principles. Disclosure is only allowed if the owner of the information has been consented, disclosure is necessary and crucial or the disclosure has been consented or demanded by law (Solove & Schwartz, 2003). Today, information disclosure to external parties is done without owner’s consent thanks to the World Wide Web.

When agencies request for information from a user, they are supposed to alert a user before, when being collected and after collection what the information is going to be used for (Solove & Schwartz, 2003). Such information is collected through emails, financial records, instant messages and other forms including video calls and internet voice calls (Litman, 2000). Scammers and cyber criminals have however taken advantage of the internet to tap into people’s information illegally, stealing identities and using it to commit cyber felonies (Culnan, 2000).

Information contained online is guarded against access, amendment and disclosure. Agencies which hold private information about people should make sure that the information being held is accurate, up to date and original (Litman, 2000). In case it is not right, individual owners should be presented with the chance to change it so as to befit their required standards. These procedures and guidelines about private information found online were as a result of the birth of the World Wide Web which has allowed users to upload their personal information into web servers.

The World Wide Web has changed information privacy in many ways. Applications that users download from the web are able to fetch personal information on phones of users (Solove & Schwartz, 2003). The collected data includes how one uses the application(s), call logs, the unique addresses of devices and other information that is not consented (Culnan, 2000). In spite of this appearing as a breach of Information Privacy Principles (IPP), users appear to be less perturbed by the trend as they only seek to satiate their information and entertainment desires. The continued spying fuelled by the World Wide Web has seen information privacy guidelines being greatly violated beyond control.

References

Culnan, M. J. (2000). Protecting privacy online: Is self-regulation working?. Journal of Public

Policy & Marketing, 1(3) 20-26.

Litman, J. (2000). Information privacy/information property. Stanford Law Review, 6(112) 1283- 1313.

Solove, D. J., & Schwartz, P. M. (2003). Information privacy law (p. 268). Wolters Kluwer Law

& Business.