Internet Privacy: Who's Responsible?

Today, internet users are told that their information is private and that only certain people they allow can see it. That is not true; the fact that the government and businesses can buy the information from social media sites violates it. The government has to look through many people’s private information in order to track down illegal activity, although most of the people they search are innocent. Even worst is that those people don’t even know what happened.  The government can do this because of the Patriot Act. They are able to obtain this information by paying social media websites, because this is the only way websites can make money. Businesses can use the information to send ads and coupons based on certain things people like. Also, employers can look at the background information of certain people. One website that sells all this information is Facebook. All these loopholes are stated in the constantly changing terms and conditions, which almost no one reads.

People are expected to understand the risks of putting information online where some of it is accessible by the public. However, they don’t know that all their information could have been sold to companies or the government. By the groceries you buy, the photos you like, and almost anything else, people can tell your personality and any personal information that you refuse to share. Websites should behave better, as if people knew what the websites did, they would lose users, leading to the loss of information to sell and money. The user should know not to post certain private information, so if they do the obtainment of information is partly their fault. However, when people can search the internet the way they do, there is nothing you can post that won’t reveal information that most people wouldn’t want revealed.

The government should not completely stop searching the internet for illegal acts, but they should limit the way they search. Another thing they should do is to stop companies from looking through personal information to know what to sell because that will not benefit the community in anyway. If companies continue to use information like this, people will eventually find out and both the website and company will lose business. The government has a valid reason to search through information, but companies only want to earn money for themselves. Maybe they can catch some illegal activities based on what people buy at stores but that is what the government is for. It is not totally the user’s job to manage their privacy, the government and companies also need to act better.

http://www.prepaidphonepro.com/privacy-policy/