Issues Related to Privacy and Security in CMC

In the recent literature on privacy and technology, considerable attention has been paid to privacy issues and concerns involving the Internet. The most significant impact that the Internet has had for personal privacy so far has not been with respect to any Internet-specific privacy concerns. The most important questions are related to the public vs. private nature of personal information. In many ways the Internet might be viewed not so much as an entity but rather as a medium through which the information residing on connected servers and databases can be accessed. People are always looking for information about people and locations.

The Internet has made it possible for certain existing privacy threats to occur on a scale that would not have been possible before. Issues such as identity theft and digging into private records are now prevalent. Specific privacy threats that were not possible with earlier information and communications technologies are now made possible by the Internet.

Through the use of a data-gathering technique called Internet cookies, online businesses and Web-site owners can store and retrieve information about a user who visits their Web sites, typically without that user's knowledge or consent. Cookies are considered by most to be a tool which can be used for user-tracking, a common concern in the field of privacy. Even though most web designers and corporations commonly use cookies for legitimate and desirable purposes, there are cases of abuse that can and do occur.

It can be both useful and harmful. Those who are in favor of this use maintain that they are performing a service for repeat users of a Web site by customizing a user's means of information retrieval and by providing the user with a list of preferences for future visits to that Web site. Does mining personal data on the Internet violate or invade an individual's privacy? There are some who are very opposed to such information mining. They still fear the use of the Internet for this reason. Privacy measures are provided on several social networking sites to try to provide their users with protection of their personal information.

Identity theft, cyber-stalking and credit card theft are some of the clearly illegal activities that take place. Being educated about cookies as well as the potential for employee monitoring, are aspects that may cause one to become more aware about the protection of their own privacy.