There is an expectation that the role of social media in big data and analytics will grow and broaden. Given that there will be new data sources, more organizations will use these in order to generate their transformations. After all of this has been done, there will be more considerable benefits gotten out of social networking. The growth in the number of organizations using the social media command center in 2011 was remarkable. The number is expected to grow even more in the coming year. The familiar use of marketing services agencies is slowly replaced by the more advanced, and more effective use of social media.

There are also big expectations on the issue of security in 2012. Organizations have started the extensive use of mobile devices in data management, which increases security risks. Given this scenario, analysts say that organizations have to learn to compromise with technology. They have to expect data breaches to happen anytime, and corporate networks have to be always prepared for any form of malicious attack that may be brought about by such breaches. With the increasing number of employee-owned devices comes the increase in the number of data leakage points.

Through technology, corporate information is made more accessible from anywhere. Mobile devices are extensively used by employees who have access to such data. Nowadays, the personal computer is being used as an additional major corporate tool. It has also given way to “personal cloud” that uses mobile and web applications. Everyone expects that new and bigger happenings will take place in the world of IT in 2012.

Behind the scenes of the beneficial effects of internet technology are those unscrupulous criminals who use that same technology to carry out their own agenda. There is a very high risk of cyber attacks, coming in different forms. There is espionage, malware, denial-of-service, cyber war, and terrorism that lurk behind the interconnected systems. This is one concern that needs to be addressed not only by individual networks, but by the cooperative effort of all.

Network protection is becoming more and more important, and researchers in Germany have proposed a new approach to it. They believe that the risk of cyber attack could be reduced by rewarding those organizations that support their own network security. They have observed that those organizations who have implemented this strategy have greatly reduced the spread of malware and other problems. Today, communications that are internet and computer-based are, for the most part, done anonymously. This results in systems becoming ever more vulnerable to cyber attacks and harassment.

The researchers explained that international or national agreements could be a start to a coordinated system of rewards. They also suggest that organizations which are highly exposed to cyber attacks should be subsidized. They added that network security on vulnerable sites should be improved in order to hinder the spread of malicious software. This is how cyber criminals create bot-nets that attack not only weak corporate networks, but others that they also find appealing.

At present, there are only very few participants who invest in cyber attack protection that benefits them. Although it adds to their cost, the entire internet community would also be indirectly benefited. The researchers believe that with a reward system in place, small and large networks can become involved. It could be a scaled reward system that would motivate them to ensure that their systems are secure.

Self regulation is the self-imposition of privacy related measures so as to avoid privacy invasion. Even without a law, it is the limiting of the use of gathered personal information by companies or groups that collect such information. It is a voluntary action that follows a clear set of guidelines about how a certain company can protect privacy. Such actions could be done by website advertisers, ISPs, data brokers, social networking sites, apps providers, etc.

The idea of self regulation began in the U.S. in 1997. Since then, this idea has been promoted by way of distributing information and encouraging websites to make it their commitment. However, history shows that not one self-regulatory effort has had prolonged success. There were attempts that were initiated, but failed in one or more significant ways. Others never got the chance to show what they had all about before they disappeared. Although it is believed that self regulation can really help solve privacy problems, reforms in its implementation are needed. There is a strong opinion that consumers themselves have the greatest responsibility in protecting their own privacy.

Observation and evaluation of past self regulation programs reveals that a majority of them were poorly designed. Most of these had poor market penetration, which means that consumers did not really know what they were all about. There were websites that used self regulation only for show, but profit was still their number one priority.

There was another issue that hindered the success of self regulation in the past. This was the lack of meaningful and independent participation among privacy and consumer advocates in its development and supervision. Self regulation supervision that is financed by industry will not be successful because obviously, industry would not want it to succeed. Also, privacy standards that are profit-driven will not do well because money becomes more important than privacy.

Once a user tries to log in to his or her account, he or she will be given the option between a cell or a landline number. After which Google will send through the provided number an authentication code. This code will be entered in the prompt box provided for the purpose and sent to Google. Only then will the user be able to log in. It is a simple process which seems harmless, but a closer look at it would raise some doubts.

Phone numbers are private properties. In the internet, uploading of cellular or landline phone numbers could pose danger. Doing such with Google’s new technology is not an exception. Collecting such valuable data from users just for authentication is not good enough reason. It can be imagined how much numbers can be collected from the millions of users even for one-time use only. Where would these data be stored? Would they be immediately deleted? How sure can the user be that these data will not be stored for future use?

Google’s reason for employing the 2-factor authentication process is that one’s account has been monitored for “unusual activity”. Once this is presented to the user, he or she can no longer proceed further. There is no other option but to provide the number asked for. This is not actually an option because one cannot bypass the process. What else could be done aside from it? None. In simple terms, Google really wanted to “grab” the user’s number.

Data protection laws, as of now, cannot force any company to delete consumer’s data in their database.
Except for those inaccurate data that could be deleted, all others could stay on forever in the web. It goes on to say that Google’s new way of “protecting” its consumers is actually in question. There must be assurance that those uploaded numbers are deleted immediately after the authentication. Unless this is in place, the new technology will just be perceived as Google’s easy way of grabbing phone numbers.

Privacy laws remained the same for more than twenty years. Considering the present status of technology, these laws have been outdated. They can no longer give full protection to personal information. If ever, these laws would have loopholes and thus could be questioned.

Just recently, Twitter disclosed an incident that illustrates the inapplicability of existing privacy laws. It received a federal order requiring it to submit its stored users’ data to authorities. Although the company questioned such action, it cannot say “no” because privacy laws would “allow” such. Users of the digital age would always be violated if the same incident happens continuously. Internet users of today need more protection that those in the past. It is because today, there are many ways that these data could be used for self-vested interests. One more thing about today’s users is they have lesser limits in data sharing. This fact validates the need for a revised implementation of privacy laws.

Tech companies decided to do something to protect themselves and their users. Lobbying is the effective strategy that they have discovered. Through lobbying, they can talk with lawmakers and privacy experts to propose their ideas. The purpose is not to totally influence decision, but to offer a wider venue for deliberation. They would like to see privacy laws that are favorable both to their business and users. They would like to see a balance between national security protection and privacy.

At present, there is a proposal for a “do not track” option. This is giving the user the leeway to consciously choose how his or her data should be treated. This method gives a user more freedom and hence is not oppressive. Another possible option is that sites would be required to obtain direct permission from data owners. Even these two proposals are not contained in today’s existing privacy laws. These are good reasons for government to act on the revision of these important laws.

The biggest detriment these pirates do to the world is the hurting of the economy. First of all, the music industry is hit the hardest. These kids and their stealing of the songs means no money for the bands, and without this money, the bands have no motivation or any means to make any new songs. There was a time was CD and record sales were through the roof, and since then, online sales have skyrocketed. Now though, neither is doing well because people are just sharing the music for free on peer to peer networks instead of legally going out and buying it.

Secondly, these kids are ruining movies and music for everyone else. The infamous “leak” is quite a popular thing on the Internet. This is when a new yet to be shown movie, or a new CD somehow appear on the Internet. Everyone scrambles to get it, and even though it is usually taken down quickly, everyone now has the new media on their hard drive. This ruins movie watchers excitement, and often times, is a false alarm. Almost every “bootleg” that surfaces on the net is a hoax, but most people don’t realize it. They then believe that this hoax that was probably quite low budget was the movie they wished to see, and will probably be turned completely off of the movie, only to find it was a fake one they saw and the real movie got flying colors and raving reviews in the newspaper.

Although this Internet piracy represents threats to many different aspects of the world, perhaps the worst hit is towards internet privacy. Piracy is usually done through massive P2P (peer to peer) networks, where one person will post the content and allow everyone else to download it for free. The thing is though, there is no way to know if this content has a virus or possibly multiple ones loaded onto it. There is no way to even tell if the content is named correctly either, as users name it themselves. Perhaps you could find yourself the subject of a “Rick Roll” in which a song you wanted actually turned out to be an eighties’ song by Rick Astely. While slightly this is slightly humorous, a virus crashing your computer or stealing all of your sensitive information is not.