The U.S. Senate Committee on Commerce, Science and Transportation is managing a series of committee hearings. This pertains to the state of online consumer privacy; the first one was conducted last March 16, 2011. The hearing mainly revolved around online commercial practices. It tried to look into practices that involve collecting, maintaining, using and disseminating large volumes of consumer information. These may also involve those that are very private and confidential in nature.

Testimonies were given by several persons. The first one who testified was FTC Chairman Liebowitz. He described latest efforts by the FTC to guard consumer privacy. FTC is doing this through law enforcement, education, and policy initiatives. Then he added some highlights from the Staff Report on consumer privacy. Finally he discussed concerns related to the “Do Not Track” proposal. He itemized five vital principles that any “Do Not Track” proposal should contain.

First, a Do Not Track system should be implemented universally. This would free consumers from continually opting out of tracking on several sites. Second, consumers should find the choice mechanism user-friendly. This means that any user should find navigation simple and easy to use. Third, the system should be persistent and should always present the options in each attempt. It should not be easily deleted when a user clears his or her cookies or updates the browser. Fourth, it should be able to allow users to opt out of advertising and tracking at the same time. Fifth, it should not contain loopholes, be enforceable and effective.

Despite the never ending debate about online privacy, technology giants Microsoft and Facebook continue to call for stronger customer security. They are determined to lay down new ways of improving the status of web privacy. For a number of times they have not succeeded but these new ones seem to be different.

Just recently, Microsoft presented the model of its do-not-track tool to its Web browsing software. Using this, users would be able to get around those unwanted online behavior monitoring and tracking. The user can stay away from those targeted ads that are simply annoying. This would become part of its Internet Explorer browser, as shown in the technical paper that was endorsed.

Facebook also has its own version of a new privacy policy. This “better version” has been expected for quite some time. This disclosed its new strategy of handling information and advertisements. It is simpler to understand and to use. It uses headings such as “your information and how it is used” and “how advertising works”.

A campaign to vote against the extension of the PATRIOT Act was called for by several groups. The voting was scheduled February 8, 2011. The so-called H.R. 514 is about to be extended, but it needs a YES vote by a full two-thirds of the House’s members. The reauthorization was seen as being fast-tracked to the House floor.

Contentions were aired questioning the manner the bill would be extended. One point that was raised was that there were no significant reforms to the old law that would merit its extension. According to critics, there is no provision for oversight and accountability. If ever, it is very weak and would not hold water.

Last year yet, the bill was proposed and debated on. Among the proposed reforms were on the areas of checks and balances. As the old version was criticized as lacking of these features, the new one is “ripe” with those. But the debates and deliberations went on until the deadline was already close. The move for extension of the old version came up when the amendments could no longer make it to the deadline. In February of last year, the extension was moved until this February 2011. In addition, there was a promise made to fully consider the raised issues before the next deadline.

Goodbye to those unwelcome advertisements that are annoying. Surf the net feeling more secure. Do not worry about someone tracking your online behavior. This time, you can always choose to remain private and safe. The time has come for online users to determine how they would behave online.

Better times for internet users are slowly gaining higher ground. After much of debates and proposals, regulators are now expecting for some positive effects of their crusade. Google and Mozilla, two of the largest names in internet announced the availability of new software. Users would now have more freedom as their web browsers would use this. What is the most significant feature of the software? It is its capability to allow users to permanently stay out of online tracking system. Many advertisers used to follow online activities. With correct profiling, they can build profiles and deliver tailored ads to target users.

Large internet advertisers and data trackers including Google and Yahoo initiated this move. They would now enable users to easily opt out of tracking on their sites. It used to be that opting out was rather complicated and more demanding. Microsoft’s Internet Explorer would add a feature where users could intentionally block monitoring efforts.

There was a time when millions of Americans were beset by sudden phone calls. That was the time when telemarketing started creating its place in the net. While doing an important chore for the family, the phone would ring. When answered, you would be disappointed once the caller started asking about lots of private information. That was obviously invasion of privacy.

Finally, Americans were able to put an efficient solution by signing up for the Do Not Call Registry. Disgruntled people signed up and the tool was put in place. Somehow, that was the best thing to do to get rid of annoying callers.

Internet technology becomes more and more invasive. Tools are being improved, each one with a specific market. With these tools, new ways of behaving online were developed. Here comes a newer, cleverer type of privacy invasion – tracking the behavior of internet users.

Corporations are able to monitor and study your keystrokes. After some time, they would be able to draw a picture of your online activities. For example, they would know which sites you frequently visit. Finally they would have a clear idea of your internet profile. You would fit into one or more of their targeted customers.

By then, marketers would consider you one of their prospects. This would be to their benefit, and, as usual, to your disturbance. This is the beginning of a new cycle of unwanted online advertisements and the likes.

From the “Do Not Call Registry” crusade, here comes the “Do Not Track” campaign. This was recommended by the Federal Trade Commission in December of last year. With this in place, corporations can no longer keep track your internet behavior. However, there are pros and cons as to its usefulness.

You would recall that in 2005, the New York Times uncovered the existence of warrantless household wiretapping. It was laid on track in 2001 by the National Security Agency. It took nearly 5 years for the government to acknowledge that it is indeed working. Since its setting up, NSA had been keeping an eye on overseas phone calls made by Americans.

In the recent issues, it’s not the government meddling into private lives. Lots of corporations make money by gathering private information. Some do it for good cause, others for their own selfish reasons. However, the main issue is not much why data are collected. It is in the way information is “stolen” from innocent people. It is the question of internet privacy that is on top of this.

The current move by the U.S. Commerce Department might be able to create a positive environment for internet users. It has called to develop a “privacy bill of rights” proposed for people who divulge information in the internet. One of the major sections would be to set guidelines for telemarketing and online advertising corporations among others.

Private and other kinds of information that are gathered online must not be used without consent from the owner. The Internet is, without question, a useful tool in almost all areas of human activity. However, users must be careful enough when comes to using personal information. This is a question that cannot be solved by any tool or gadget. It is more than expertise, even more than brains. Internet privacy has more to do with human freedom and social justice.

In any culture, bad people are always involved. Whenever some other person has a large amount of money or has an excellent life along with their excellent job, some other person who puts no effort into life finds them and robs them of it. The epitome of the old school thieves is the good old “hold you at gunpoint” breed. These low lifes might lurk in some gloomy alleyway for all of your cash and jewels, and then leave you poor or dead. This is the most memorable view of the old-style crook.

This type of criminal would have a starring role in an old gangster movie, the ones so overplayed they would be in a stark non-color and grainy version. As with their movie persona, these bad guys committed some atrocities. The film portrayals simply scared the viewers, but real street crooks are the ones to be held accountable for almost of the fright and damage to people. These bad people are the ones who make the cities unsafe at night, and are bait for most news reports adding to the hysteria.

These men and women were the most evil of the bad in their era. They were the outcasts of society, the ones that, when friends and families saw them in court, would avert their gaze, as if their gaze had some strange and hypnotic power. These were the reasons that the United States treads lightly with its prison system. It is a strange thing that such an accepting society conjures: you have these boundless rights and freedoms, yet it is just assumed that you will not abuse them. Unfortunately, while most of us take care of these rights, guys like these don’t and it tears at the very foundation of our country.

Computers are expensive. Yet nearly every home in America has one. The keyword here is “one” though. Although we have a television in every room, and various other amenities, we still often only have one computer. This computer is often used by multiple users. While this is an economical decision, there are some guidelines the users must follow in order to make sure it works out well.

First of all, usage times. It is inevitable that there will be some squabbling over who gets to use the computer at what time, or that some needs to use it now because it is an emergency, there are ways to solve this. Consider making a chart of times, and have everyone pre-sign up the day of for the times that they would like to use the computer. Everyone lives different lives, so this should work out well. Parents can use it before kids get home, and then kids to do homework and socializing, and then switch again. Having a schedule will stop people from getting into a computer fisticuffs.

If the system allows it, and most do, set up multiple accounts. This will allow everyone to have their own personal settings, and not argue over a universal desktop! This way also, the parents can set restrictions of time or block certain content from the child accounts, while letting their accounts go free. This way can help for documents as well. If the adults are working from that computer, this will stop an unknowledgeable kid from accidentally deleting a big document or spreadsheet the parent was making for over a month.  This can also help too if the family has a music sharing program. While they still can see everyone else’s content if they wish, the different members won’t have to sit through each other’s likely clashing music tastes.

In the U.S., we enjoy a great amount of freedom and many social rights. Privacy is one of those, and arguably the most important. Our Internet is completely uncensored and our government has no notions or plans to change that. We can surf what we want, when we want, and people have almost taken this for granted. Many other countries are not this way. For example, Iran is very censored, and around certain times, it gets worse. As the last election drew to a close, the government in Iran blocked Twitter and other instant messaging services were shut down so as to not give protestors a medium to communicate their message. In China, people always make jokes about the “Great Firewall of China”. It didn’t earn this nickname for no reason though, Chinese citizens are blocked from pretty much any site that has anything anti-communist or any content that might go against their ideologies.

Although out Internet is as free as red, white, and blue can be, freedom can bring about some bad things. Criminals and identity thieves roam the Internet; hackers and trackers prey on innocents. As technology increases, these criminals up their arsenal and still have some tricks up their sleeve. Some people may feel comforted by the security systems and firewalls installed on their computer, but this is just the same as a child hiding under the covers; what are the covers actually going to do?

These preliminary defenses are a piece of cake for a hacker of even the most rudimentary talent. The truth is, even if these defenses worked, they still wouldn’t fix the main problem: the IP address. This virtual nametag your computer wears is shown to every website, and contains your location. If someone got your IP address, all they would have to do is copy it into a Google search, and they would have your location.

The Internet has firmly taken root in America and now is involved and vital in every aspect of life. For the first time ever, there is a medium at which organizations can build a career base and reach their clientele at minimum cost. People can connect over chatting, whether it be text or actually web cam directed, and interact and have fun online. People’s social lives now exist predominately on the Internet, though MySpace, FaceBook, Twitter, etc. The Internet isn’t all good however, and this is easily recognizable. It is safe to say though the biggest wound it has inflicted is the one on people’s individual privacy.

People post to much stuff on the Internet, and it never deletes itself. Although sites rarely ever clean out their servers, even if they did, you can guarantee your information is already posted to another site. And you can be sure from there that somebody stored it on their computer and emailed it to a bunch of their friends and co-workers; a vicious cycle. Suddenly your embarrassing photo or online rant about something has made you the laughing stock of your community and future employers will hold this over your head. Employers now often do a quick Google search of their applicant’s names, to see if they have a social networking site account. Colleges do this also; they want to make sure they are hiring some complete slacker who has all sorts of incriminating stuff on his page.

The city of Los Angeles has proposed a multi-million dollar buyout of all sorts of Internet information: e-mail, personal information, even police records. They propose to use Google to find all of this information; essentially tap Google’s unlimited database. Although the city wishes to buy everything for noble reasons like criminal tracking and other crime deterrents, the public worries for its loss of privacy.

Paul Weber, who spearheads the Los Angeles Police Protective League, says that he himself is worried. He says that his unit has little knowledge on what the plan fully entails, and they are quite worried about what the repercussions on the public’s privacy will be. He is especially worried about the release of confidential police records and other criminal data.

He was right, and not the only one worried. The online messaging giant Twitter sent out a message to be careful when using Google, because they frequently use “cloud computing”: storing files online rather than in their direct control. This allows the data to be much easier to hack and get into. Twitter isn’t the only one to have this concern though, but it a novel event that one huge company calls out another.

This shift from keeping data and information online is useful, as it cleans up the massive amount of space needed to store all of this data, but it represents many security issues. For one, the whole thing would be accessed by a username and password system, so if a hacker got either, he could be on his way into a gold mine of information. This is also amplified by the fact that many people link their accounts together, so if a hacker gained access to one account, he could actually be getting into many accounts. Also, there are not as many layers of security that prevent an interloper from gaining access.