PRIVACY ISSUES ON THE INTERNET

1.0 INTRODUCTION

The Internet is a global system of interconnected computer networks that use the

standard Internet Protocol Suite (TCP/IP) to serve billions of users worldwide. It is a network of

networks that consists of millions of private, public, academic, business, and government

networks of local to global scope that are linked by a broad array of electronic and optical

networking technologies. The Internet carries a vast array of information resources and services,

most notably the inter-linked hypertext documents of the World Wide Web (WWW) and the

infrastructure to support electronic mail

As the internet provides us with lots of information, entertainments, and knowledge, internet

has become very important and beneficial to every single user. The saying that ‘the worlds is at

your fingertips’ really true as any affairs could be done with a blink of eyes without wasting

money and times. For instance, e-commerce, social networking websites and blogs are really

helps in fasten our daily activities. However, these eases cause privacy issues to appear and the

bad sides of internet frankly revealed.

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2.0 DEFINITION, DESCRIPTION AND EXAMPLES

2.1 E-commerce

2.1.1 Definition

Electronic commerce, commonly known as e-commerce or eCommerce, or e-

business consists of the buying and selling of products or services over electronic

systems such as the Internet and other computer networks. The amount of trade

conducted electronically has grown extraordinarily with widespread Internet usage.

The use of commerce is conducted in this way, spurring and drawing on

innovations in electronic funds transfer, supply chain management, Internet

marketing, online transaction processing, electronic data

interchange (EDI), inventory management systems, and automated data collection

systems. Modern electronic commerce typically uses the World Wide Web at least

at some point in the transaction's lifecycle, although it can encompass a wider range

of technologies such as e-mail as well.

A large percentage of electronic commerce is conducted entirely electronically

for virtual items such as access to premium content on a website, but most

electronic commerce involves the transportation of physical items in some way.

Online retailers are sometimes known as e-tailers and online retail is sometimes

known as e-tail. Almost all big retailers have electronic commerce presence on

the World Wide Web.

Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses is referred to

as business-to-business or B2B. B2B can be open to all interested parties

(e.g. commodity exchange) or limited to specific, pre-qualified participants (private

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electronic market). Electronic commerce that is conducted between businesses and

consumers, on the other hand, is referred to as business-to-consumer or B2C. This

is the type of electronic commerce conducted by companies such

as Amazon.com. Online shopping is a form of electronic commerce where the

buyer is directly online to the seller's computer usually via the internet. There is no

intermediary service. The sale and purchase transaction is completed electronically

and interactively in real-time such as Amazon.com for new books. If an

intermediary is present, then the sale and purchase transaction is called electronic

commerce such as eBay.com.

Electronic commerce is generally considered to be the sales aspect of e-business.

It also consists of the exchange of data to facilitate the financing and payment

aspects of the business transactions.

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2.1.2 History

The meaning of electronic commerce has changed over the last 30 years.

Originally, electronic commerce meant the facilitation of commercial transactions

electronically, using technology such as Electronic Data Interchange (EDI)

and Electronic Funds Transfer (EFT). These were both introduced in the late 1970s,

allowing businesses to send commercial documents like purchase

orders or invoices electronically. The growth and acceptance of credit

cards, automated teller machines (ATM) and telephone banking in the 1980s were

also forms of electronic commerce. Another form of e-commerce was the airline

reservation system typified by Sabre in the USA and Travicom in the UK.

Online shopping, a form of electronic commerce, pre-dates the IBM

PC, Microsoft, Apple Inc. and the Internet/www. In 1979 Michael Aldrich,an

English inventor, connected a modified 26" color domestic television to a real-time

transaction processing computer via a domestic telephone line and invented online

shopping.[1] The first recorded B2B was Thomson Holidays1981[2] The first

recorded B2C was Gateshead SIS/Tesco in 1984.[3] The world's first recorded online

home shopper was Mrs Jane Snowball,72, of Gateshead, England in May 1984.
[4]
During the 1980s Aldrich sold many systems mainly in the UK

including Ford, Peugeot [then trading as Talbot Motors], General

Motors and Nissan.[5] The Nissan system of 1984/5 was revolutionary. It enabled a

car buyer on a dealer's lot to both buy and finance the car, including credit check,

online.[6] Aldrich invented both the online shopping system and the business

rationale for using it. His system was copied and his ideas were plagiarised. His

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1980s systems were as fast as 2010 internet shopping systems. They used dial-up

and leased telephone lines as broadband was not available. He never patented his

shopping system and his ideas are the basis of internet shopping.

From the 1990s onwards, electronic commerce would additionally

include enterprise resource planning systems (ERP), data mining and data

warehousing.

An early example of many-to-many electronic commerce in physical goods was

the Boston Computer Exchange, a marketplace for used computers launched in

1982. An early online information marketplace, including online consulting, was

the American Information Exchange, another pre Internet[clarification needed]

 online

system introduced in 1991.

In 1990, Tim Berners-Lee invented the WorldWideWeb web browser and

transformed an academic telecommunication network into a worldwide everyman

everyday communication system called internet/www. Commercial enterprise on

the Internet was strictly prohibited until 1991.[7] Although the Internet became

popular worldwide around 1994 when the first internet online shopping started, it

took about five years to introduce security protocols and DSL allowing continual

connection to the Internet. By the end of 2000, many European and American

business companies offered their services through the World Wide Web. Since then

people began to associate a word "ecommerce" with the ability of purchasing

various goods through the Internet using secure protocols and electronic payment

services.

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2.1.3 Business Application

Some common applications related to electronic commerce are the following:

2.1.3.1 Email

2.1.3.2 Enterprise content management

2.1.3.3 Instant messaging

2.1.3.4 Newsgroups

2.1.3.5 Online shopping and order tracking

2.1.3.6 Online banking

2.1.3.7 Online office suites

2.1.3.8 Domestic and international payment systems

2.1.3.9 Shopping cart software

2.1.3.10 Teleconferencing

2.1.3.11 Electronic tickets

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2.1.4 Examples

2.1.4.1 Examples of e-commerce transactions are:

 An individual purchases a book on the Internet.

 A government employee reserves a hotel room over the Internet.

 A business calls a toll free number and orders a computer using the

seller's interactive telephone system.

 A business buys office supplies on-line or through an electronic

auction.

 A retailer orders merchandise using an EDI network or a supplier's

extranet.

 A manufacturing plant orders electronic components from another

plant within the company using the company's intranet.

 An individual withdraws funds from an automatic teller machine

(ATM).

Identifying e-commerce transactions often is not as straight forward as the

previous examples may make it appear. Some additional examples that

demonstrate the complexity of implementing the proposed definition are

provided below.

 A consumer visits a bookstore and inquires about the availability of an

out-of-stock book. A bookstore employee downloads a digital copy of

the book and prints it along with cover. Not an e-commerce retail

transaction since agreement to purchase did not occur over an electronic

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 network. However, the right to access the digital archived copy is an e-

commerce service transaction.

 Consumer uses Internet to research the purchase of a computer, but calls

a toll free number and places the order with an operator. Not an e-

commerce transaction because agreement to transfer ownership did not

occur over computer-mediated network; neither telephone was

computer-enabled.

 An individual visits a retail store and purchases merchandise not

currently in stock from a computer-enabled kiosk located inside the

shop. An e-commerce transaction since agreement occurred over

computer-mediated networks. In contrast, the purchase of a pre-

packaged music CD from a computerized kiosk would not be considered

an e-commerce transaction. If the kiosk was network linked, the digital

music was downloaded, and the CD was mastered within the kiosk this

would be an e-commerce transaction.

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2.1.4.2 Examples of e-commerce websites are

Djin

http://www.djin.se/

Putuka

http://www.putuka.com/

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 Habitat Shoes

http://www.habitatshoes.com/

Design Loot

http://www.designloot.com/

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2.2 Social networking websites

2.2.1 Definition

A social network service focuses on building and reflecting of social

networks or social relations among people, e.g., who share interests and/or

activities. A social network service essentially consists of a representation of each

user (often a profile), his/her social links, and a variety of additional services. Most

social network services are web based and provide means for users to interact over

the internet, such as e-mail and instant messaging. Although online

community services are sometimes considered as a social network service in a

broader sense, social network service usually means an individual-centered service

whereas online community services are group-centered. Social networking sites

allow users to share ideas, activities, events, and interests within their individual

networks.

The main types of social networking services are those which contain category

places (such as former school-year or classmates), means to connect with friends

(usually with self-description pages) and a recommendation system linked to trust.

Popular methods now combine many of these,

with Facebook, Bebo and Twitter widely used worldwide; MySpace and

LinkedIn being the most widely used in North America; Nexopia (mostly in

Canada); Bebo, Hi5, Hyves (mostly in The Netherlands), StudiVZ (mostly in

Germany), iWiW (mostly in Hungary), Tuenti (mostly in

Spain), Decayenne, Tagged, XING, Badoo and Skyrock in parts of

Europe; Orkut and Hi5 in South America and Central

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America; and Friendster,Mixi, Multiply, Orkut, Wretch, renren and Cyworld in

Asia and the Pacific Islands and Orkut and Facebook in India.

There have been some attempts to standardize these services to avoid the need to

duplicate entries of friends and interests (see the FOAF standard and the Open

Source Initiative).

Although some of the largest social networks were founded on the notion of

digitizing real world connections, many networks focus on categories from books

and music to non-profit business to motherhood as ways to provide both services

and community to individuals with shared interests.

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2.2.2 History

The potential for computer networking to facilitate new forms of computer-

mediated social interaction was suggested early on Efforts to support social

networks via computer-mediated communication were made in many early online

services, including Usenet, ARPANET, LISTSERV, and bulletin board services

(BBS). Many prototypical features of social networking sites were also present in

online services such as America Online, Prodigy, and CompuServe.

Early social networking on the World Wide Web began in the form of generalized

online communities such as Theglobe.com (1994), Geocities (1994)

and Tripod.com (1995). Many of these early communities focused on bringing

people together to interact with each other through chat rooms, and encouraged

users to share personal information and ideas via personal webpages by providing

easy-to-use publishing tools and free or inexpensive webspace. Some communities -

such as Classmates.com - took a different approach by simply having people link to

each other via email addresses. In the late 1990s, user profiles became a central

feature of social networking sites, allowing users to compile lists of "friends" and

search for other users with similar interests.

New social networking methods were developed by the end of the 1990s, and

many sites began to develop more advanced features for users to find and manage

friends.  This newer generation of social networking sites began to flourish with the

emergence of Friendster in 2002, and soon became part of the Internet mainstream.

Friendster was followed byMySpace and LinkedIn a year later, and finally, Bebo.

Attesting to the rapid increase in social networking sites' popularity, by

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2005, MySpace was reportedly getting more page views than Google. Facebook, ,

launched in 2004, has since become the largest social networking site in the world.

Today, it is estimated that there are now over 200 active sites using a wide variety

of social networking models.

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2.2.3 Typical Structure

2.2.3.1 Basic

Social networking sites tend to share some conventional features. Most

often, individual users are encouraged to create profiles containing various

information about themselves. Users can often upload pictures of

themselves to their profiles, post blog entries for others to read, search for

other users with similar interests, and compile and share lists of contacts. In

addition, user profiles often have a section dedicated to comments from

friends and other users. To protect user privacy, social networks usually

have controls that allow users to choose who can view their profile, contact

them, add them to their list of contacts, and so on.

In recent years, it has also become common for wide variety organizations

to create profiles to advertise products and services.

2.2.3.2 Additional features

Some social networks have additional features, such as the ability to

create groups that share common interests or affiliations, upload or stream

live videos, and hold discussions in forums. Geosocial networking co-opts

internet mapping services to organize user participation around geographic

features and their attributes.

There is also a trend for more interoperability between social networks led

by technologies such as OpenID and OpenSocial.

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 Lately, mobile social networking has become popular. In most mobile

communities, mobile phone users can now create their own profiles, make

friends, participate in chat rooms, create chat rooms, hold private

conversations, share photos and videos, and share blogs by using their

mobile phone. Mobile phone users are basically open to every option that

someone sitting on the computer has. Some companies provide wireless

services which allow their customers to build their own mobile community

and brand it, but one of the most popular wireless services for social

networking in North America is Facebook Mobile. Other companies provide

new innovative features which extend the social networking experience into

the real world.

Another social networking feature in a professional aspect is

Linkedin.com. This social network allows professionals to exchange

information, opportunities, and ideas. Professionals are able to stay

informed with new knowledge about their field.

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2.2.4 Examples of social network websites

Myspce

http://www.myspace.com/

Facebook

http://www.facebook.com/

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 Friendster

http://www.friendster.com/

Tagged

http://www.tagged.com/index.html?r=/home.html

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2.3 Blogs

2.3.1 Definition

A blog (a portmanteau of the term "web log")[1] is a type of website or part of

a website. Blogs are usually maintained by an individual with regular entries of

commentary, descriptions of events, or other material such as graphics or video.

Entries are commonly displayed in reverse-chronological order. "Blog" can also be

used as a verb, meaning to maintain or add content to a blog.Many blogs provide

commentary or news on a particular subject; others function as more

personal online diaries. A typical blog combines text, images, and links to other

blogs, Web pages, and other media related to its topic. The ability of readers to

leave comments in an interactive format is an important part of many blogs. Most

blogs are primarily textual, although some focus on art (Art blog), photographs

(photoblog), videos (Video blogging), music (MP3 blog), and audio

(podcasting). Microblogging is another type of blogging, featuring very short posts.

As of December 2007, blog search engine Technorati was tracking more than

112,000,000 blogs

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2.3.2 History

The term "weblog" was coined by Jorn Barger on 17 December 1997. The short

form, "blog," was coined by Peter Merholz, who jokingly broke the

word weblog into the phrase we blog in the sidebar of his blog Peterme.com in

April or May 1999 Shortly thereafter, Evan Williams at Pyra Labs used "blog" as

both a noun and verb ("to blog," meaning "to edit one's weblog or to post to one's

weblog") and devised the term "blogger" in connection with Pyra

Labs' Blogger product, leading to the popularization of the terms

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2.3.3 Types

2.3.3.1 Personal blogs

The personal blog, an ongoing diary or commentary by an individual, is the

traditional, most common blog. Personal bloggers usually take pride in their

blog posts, even if their blog is never read. Blogs often become more than a

way to just communicate; they become a way to reflect on life, or works of

art. Blogging can have a sentimental quality. Few personal blogs rise to

fame and the mainstream, but some personal blogs quickly garner an

extensive following. One type of personal blog, referred to as a microblog,

is extremely detailed and seeks to capture a moment in time. Some sites,

such as Twitter, allow bloggers to share thoughts and feelings

instantaneously with friends and family, and are much faster than emailing

or writing.

2.3.3.2 Corporate and organizational blogs

A blog can be private, as in most cases, or it can be for business purposes.

Blogs used internally to enhance the communication and culture in

a corporation or externally formarketing, branding or public

relations purposes are called corporate blogs. Similar blogs for clubs and

societies are called club blogs, group blogs, or by similar names; typical use

is to inform members and other interested parties of club and member

activities.

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2.3.3.3 By genre

Some blogs focus on a particular subject, such as political blogs, travel

blogs (also known as travelogs), house blogs, fashion blogs, project

blogs, education blogs, niche blogs, classical music blogs, quizzing blogs

and legal blogs (often referred to as a blawgs) or dreamlogs. Two common

types of genre blogs are art blogs and music blogs. A blog featuring

discussions especially about home and family is not uncommonly called

a mom blog While not a legitimate type of blog, one used for the sole

purpose of spamming is known as a Splog.

2.3.3.4 By media type

A blog comprising videos is called a vlog, one comprising links is called

a linklog, a site containing a portfolio of sketches is called a sketchblog or

one comprising photos is called aphotoblog Blogs with shorter posts and

mixed media types are called tumblelogs. Blogs that are written on

typewriters and then scanned are called typecast or typecast blogs;

see typecasting (blogging).

A rare type of blog hosted on the Gopher Protocol is known as a Phlog.

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2.3.3.5 By device

Blogs can also be defined by which type of device is used to compose it. A

blog written by a mobile device like a mobile phone or PDA could be called

a moblog One early blog was Wearable Wireless Webcam, an online shared

diary of a person's personal life combining text, video, and pictures

transmitted live from a wearable computer and EyeTap device to a web site.

This practice of semi-automated blogging with live video together with text

was referred to as sousveillance. Such journals have been used as evidence

in legal matters

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2.3.4 Community and cataloging

2.3.4.1 The Blogosphere

The collective community of all blogs is known as the blogosphere. Since

all blogs are on the internet by definition, they may be seen as

interconnected and socially networked, through blogrolls,

comments, linkbacks (refbacks, trackbacks or pingbacks) and backlinks.

Discussions "in the blogosphere" are occasionally used by the media as a

gauge of public opinion on various issues. Because new, untapped

communities of bloggers can emerge in the space of a few years, Internet

marketers pay close attention to "trends in the blogosphere.

2.3.4.2 Blog search engines

Several blog search engines are used to search blog contents, such

as Bloglines, BlogScope, and Technorati. Technorati, which is among the

most popular blog search engines, provides current information on both

popular searches and tags used to categorize blog postings. The research

community is working on going beyond simple keyword search, by

inventing new ways to navigate through huge amounts of information

present in the blogosphere, as demonstrated by projects like BlogScope.

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2.3.4.3 Blogging communities and directories

Several online communities exist that connect people to blogs and bloggers

to other bloggers, including BlogCatalog and MyBlogLog. Interest-specific

blogging platforms are also available. For instance, Blogster has a sizable

community of political bloggers among its members.

2.3.4.4 Blogging and advertising

It is common for blogs to feature advertisements either to financially benefit

the blogger or to promote the blogger's favorite causes. The popularity of

blogs has also given rise to "fake blogs" in which a company will create a

fictional blog as a marketing tool to promote a product.

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2.3.5 Examples of blog

2.3.5.1 Personal blogs

2.3.5.2 Corporate and organizational blogs

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2.3.5.3 By genre

2.3.5.4 By media type

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3.0 PRIVACY CONCERN IN E-COMMERCE

3.1 Social and business issue

Why is privacy of concern to e-commerce? We believe this concern stems from a

new technical environment for consumers and businesses, the resulting data flow with

substantial benefits to businesses and consumers, consumer concerns in this new

environment, and regulatory attempts to govern this environment. It is important to

understand each one of these, and to understand the tradeoffs. Privacy as a business issue

is extremely sensitive to changes in the surrounding context. Changes in people’s

expectations (such as when they become accustomized to datatransfer in commercial

settings) or in regulatory governance (such as new laws, governmental regulations, or

even case law in the US) can dramatically alter business issues and possibilities.

Below is an overview of the research and business issues. This will include the

consumers’ concerns, technical issues, and regulatory attempts to ameliorate privacy

concerns. In this examination, our attempt is not to predict what will happen or should

happen, but to present issues to guide further research and business activity.

Clearly, there are many business opportunities in the changing technical

environment. The use of digital systems allows data capture at a much larger rate and

scope than previously; e-commerce sites could potentially collect an immense amount of

data about personal preferences, shopping patterns, patterns of information search and

use, and the like about consumers, especially if aggregated across sites. Not only is it

easier than ever to collect the data, it is also much easier to search these data [Dhillon and

Moores 2001]. New computational techniques allow data mining for buying patterns and

other personal trends. These data can be used to personalize a customer’s e-commerce

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experience, augment an organization’s customer support, or improve a customer’s

specific e-site experience. The data are valuable for reuse, for example, in finding

potential sales to existing customers. As well, the data are also valuable to aggregators

(who may look for other personal trends and patterns) or for other types of resale. Indeed,

reuse and resale are simultaneously both potential opportunities and problems.

“Ironically, the same practices that

From the viewpoint of customers, many e-commerce sites have done foolish

things with their customers’ data [Fisher 2001]. Consumers’ opinions in this have been

confirmed by media stories of particularly egregious privacy failures and public relations

nightmares. Broadly speaking, consumers are merely confirmed in their opinions by the

media. As mentioned, few consumers trust companies to keep their data private. In one

survey, 92% of respondents indicated that even when companies promised to keep

personal data private, they would not actually do so [Light 2001].

Culnan and Armstrong [1999] make the argument that consumers have two kinds

of privacy concerns. First, they are concerned over unauthorized access to personal data

because of security breaches (see below) or the lack of internal controls. Second,

consumers are concerned about the risk of secondary use – the reuse of their personal

data for unrelated purposes without their consent. This includes sharing with third parties

who were not part of the transaction in which the consumer related his or her personal

data. It also includes the aggregation of a consumers’ transaction data and other personal

data to create a profile. Smith, Milberg, and Burke [1996] raise two additional concerns

based on Delphi studies, general concerns about personal data being collected and

concerns over one’s inability to correct any errors.

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 Beyond the research literature describing a general anxiety (and its extent), there

is some research literature providing more detail. A persistent finding, over several

decades, is that it is fruitful to consider US consumers not as a general block but as

consisting of 3 groups [Westin 1991]:privacy fundamentalists, the pragmatic majority,

and the marginally concerned. These groupings have been consistent across studies (e.g.,

[Ackerman, Cranor, and Reagle 1999], [Spiekermann, Grossklags, and Berendt 2001]).

(Spiekermann et al. divided the pragmatics into those who were considered with

revealing their identity and those who were more concerned about making their personal

profiles available.) In Ackerman et al., these groups were 17%, 56%, and 27% of the

sample respectively. Spiekermann et al. noted a larger group of privacy fundamentalists

and fewer marginally concerned in Germany. The groups differ significantly in their

privacy preferences and attitudes. The marginally concerned group is mostly indifferent

to privacy concerns; privacy fundamentalists, on the other hand, are quite

uncompromising about their privacy. The majority of the US population, however, is

concerned about its privacy, but is willing to trade personal data for some benefit (e.g.,

customer service). Nonetheless, consumers still want adequate measures to protect their

information from inappropriate sale, accidental leakage or loss, and deliberate attack

[Dhillon and Moores 2001]. In [Ackerman, Cranor, and Reagle 1999], the concerns of

pragmatists were often significantly reduced by the presence of privacy protection

measures such as privacy laws or privacy policies on Web sites

Another interesting finding, also quite persistent, is that there is a large gap

between most people's stated preferences and their actual behavior ([Ackerman, Cranor,

and Reagle 1999], [Spiekermann, Grossklags, and Berendt 2001]). While this is often the

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case in social studies [Bernard 2000], it is of particular interest here. It is not yet known,

however, whether this gap is permanent, in that it is unlikely to change, or is the

symptom of people's frustration with current technologies.

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3.2 Technologies for privacy

The next consideration is technology. A number of technologies have altered the

current privacy debates. Clark [2001] divides the technologies in question into 4 groups.

Clarke argues that Review chapter for the New Economy Handbook (Jones, ed.), in press

there are technologies used for surveillance, the technologies for forming agreements

(contracting) about the release of private data, the technologies for labeling and trust, and

privacy-enhancing technologies (PETs).

The technologies for surveillance and for data capture are used by companies for

business purposes, but they have the side effect of endangering personal privacy. These

include generating data trails, data warehousing and data mining, and biometrics. Many

of these technical mechanisms can lead to consumer profiles that “are no longer based

only on the individual’s dealings with a single organization, because their data is shared

by multiple merchants…. [Clarke 2001]” Balancing these tracking mechanisms are

privacy enhancing technologies (PETs), which attempt to defeat or neutralize the

surveillance or tracking technologies. Basic PETs include cookiemanagers and personal

firewalls. Other PETs attempt to provide genuine anonymity, and include anonymous

remailers (e.g., Mixmaster) and digital cash (e.g., ECash). An active area of research and

development are systems to provide non-traceable identifiers (e.g., ZKS Freedom, AT&T

Crowds, anonymizer.com, anonymous remailers). Yet other PETs, which Clarke calls

“gentle PETs”, try to balance privacy and accountability. These include systems to

provide some level of pseudonymity, allowing users to hide behind the pseudonyms but

allowing actions to be traced back to a person if necessary. In addition, privacy seals

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(e.g., from TRUSTe or the Better Business Bureau) indicate that the company follows the

privacy practices stated on their web site.

A new area of research includes the so-called labeling protocols, such as the

MIT/World Wide Web Consortium’s Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P) [Cranor and

Reagle 1998, Cranor 2002, P3P 2002]. P3P allows sites to describe their data handling

policies (P3P statements) and permits users to describe their preferences for releasing

private data (P3P preferences). As sites label themselves with P3P and as user clients

(such as Internet Explorer) handle P3P statements and preferences, it will be possible to

create technologies to form contracts for the release of private data. Other technologies,

such as those to help users understand contractual terms or even contract-related fraud,

will also emerge. Ackerman and Cranor [1999] outline one such technology. Their

browser-based agents watch for privacy violations, privacy scams, and the like on behalf

of the user.

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4.0 PRIVACY CONCERN IN SOCIAL NETWORKING WEBSITES

On large social networking services, there have been growing concerns about users

giving out too much personal information and the threat of sexual predators. Users of these

services also need to be aware of data theft or viruses. However, large services, such

as MySpace and Netlog, often work with law enforcement to try to prevent such incidents.

In addition, there is a perceived privacy threat in relation to placing too much personal

information in the hands of large corporations or governmental bodies, allowing a profile to

be produced on an individual's behavior on which decisions, detrimental to an individual,

may be taken.

Furthermore, there is an issue over the control of data—information that was altered or

removed by the user may in fact be retained and/or passed to 3rd parties. This danger was

highlighted when the controversial social networking site Quechup harvested e-mail

addresses from users' e-mail accounts for use in a spamming operation.

In medical and scientific research, asking subjects for information about their behaviors

is normally strictly scrutinized by institutional review boards, for example, to ensure that

adolescents and their parents have informed consent. It is not clear whether the same rules

apply to researchers who collect data from social networking sites. These sites often contain

a great deal of data that is hard to obtain via traditional means. Even though the data are

public, republishing it in a research paper might be considered invasion of privacy.

Privacy on social networking sites can undermined by many factors. For example, users

may disclose personal information, sites may not take adequate steps to protect user privacy,

and third parties frequently use information posted on social networks for a variety of

purposes. "For the Net generation, social networking sites have become the preferred forum

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for social interactions, from posturing and role playing to simply sounding off. However,

because such forums are relatively easy to access, posted content can be reviewed by anyone

with an interest in the users' personal information"

Following plans by the UK government to monitor traffic on social networks schemes

similar to E-mail jamming have been proposed for networks such as Twitter and Facebook.

These would involve "friending" and "following" large numbers of random people to thwart

attempts at network analysis.

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5.0 PRIVACY CONCERN IN BLOGS

Users usually use blog as their electronic diaries as they splitting out all of their feelings

and opinions in their daily posts. Many of them in the opinion that they could right anything

they want as the blogs is theirs and nobody has the right to stop them. As the results, they

write everything across their minds without realizing that they might cross the line. If the

blog is set to private and only the author or chosen readers could retrieve it, then the privacy

issues might not be a bid deal.

Nevertheless, almost every user do not set their blog to private which definitely means

that anyone at any place at any present time could read their blogs. Therefore, the diary that

should be written and read by only the author has lost its privacy. Furthermore when the

posts concerned to someone else which also could read it, an argument might come out and it

is up to no good.

On the other hand, people could copy the post and manipulate it which means that things

will turn from bad to worse and the blamed party is unfortunately the blog’s owner.

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6.0 CONCLUSION

It is admitted that internet is such a great and fantastic facilities that we could not help to

use it almost everyday to facilitate us to accomplished our daily affairs whether it is for

study, business, work or even entertainment. Using e-commerce facilitates us to shopping or

settles our billings without have to go to the respective places, find the parking and form a

line while waiting for our turn. Social networking websites allow us to make friends, meeting

peoples, connecting us with our previous buddies and families and even strengthen our

relationship with everyone we knew. Blogs give us courage to be outspoken and helps in

releasing our pressure by writing down everything nestling in the very deep of our heart.

However, our privacy might be interrupted by irresponsible parties which manipulate all

of our personal details such as IC number, addresses, emails, photos, videos and financial

account number for their own behalf.

Thus, as wise user that realize about the seriousness of this facts, we still could use the

internet facilities, but we must be aware of the harm that could come by limiting the personal

details entered in one websites.

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7.0 REFERENCE LIST

7.1 Wikipedia

http://www.wikipedia.org/
7.2 Pagebuzz

http://pagebuzz.com/ecommerce-ca4.html
7.3 Tutorial blog

http://tutorialblog.org/20-of-the-best-ecommerce-websites/
7.4 Lorelle on Wordpress

http://lorelle.wordpress.com/2009/04/08/example-of-a-perfect-personal-blog/
7.5 Organizational blog

http://blogging.compendiumblog.com/blog/organizational-blogs
7.6 I Love Photography Blogs

http://www.ilovephotoblogs.com/tag/example-of-a-great-photoblog
7.8 Pro Music

http://www.pro-music.org/Content/InsideTheMusicBiz/jobs-blogger.php
7.9 Privacy and Security Issues in E-Commerce

http://www.eecs.umich.edu/~ackerm/pub/03e05/EC-privacy.ackerman.pdf

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