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.

Kung ikaw ay naghahanap ng trabaho gamit ang mga online ads, umiwas sa mga nanghihingi ng iyong mga personal na impormasyon. Marami sa mga cyber criminals ang nagtatago sa likod nga mga legal na job sites para lamang magmukhang tunay din sila. Ang iba sa kanila ay gumagamit pa ng mga sikat na logo o ng mga salitang nakapanghihikayat nang sa ganoo’y makuha ang iyong atensyon. Malalaman mo na lang na peke pala ang mga links na kanilang ginagamit. Kapag pinindot mo ang mga ito, dadalhin ka lamang sa website ng isang kompanyang animo’y totoo, subalit wala palang ganoon.

Kung hindi manghihingi ng iyong personal na impormasyon, meron namang pagbabayarin ka kapalit ng isang serbisyo. Marami nang naging biktima ng ganitong estilo at sa katunayan, dumarami pa ang naloloko. Pagkatapos magbayad, saka palang nila malalamang wala naman palang ganoong klaseng serbisyo. Mahirap pa naman silang mahuli dahil biglang “nagsasara” ang kanilang kompanya at hindi mo na sila mahahagilap.

Para sa mga online job hunters katulad mo, mainam kung maisasaulo ang mga simpleng tips upang makaiwas sa ganitong sitwasyon. Unang-una, huwang basta magbibigay ng iyong personal na impormasyon online, lalo na iyong hindi job related. Walang lehitimong employer na manghihingi ng social security number, date of birth, home address, at iba pa kaagad agad. Isa sa mga pinaka “no-no” ang pagbibigay ng impormasyong personal sa pamamagitan ng telepono, email, o fax.

Pagdating naman sa iyong resume, dapat mong isaisip na ito ang iyong pinakapuhunan. Napapaloob ditto ang mga sensitibong impormasyon na dapat manatiling “private”. Huwag na huwag mo itong ipamimigay nang walang mahalagang dahilan. Kung kailangan mo itong i-post online, pumili ng job site na may malinaw na privacy policy. Doon ka sa hindi basta-bastang binibigyan ng access ang mga recruiters sa iyong personal na impormasyon.

Kung kailangan mong ma-verify ang isang employer, hanapin ang contact number nito at tawagan. Kung magiging praktikal, mas mabuting bumisita ng personal sa kinaroroonan ng kompanya o opisina nito. Saka mo pa lamang masasabi kung ito nga ay lehitimo o hindi.

The same is true with parents who care less about being involved with their children’s online activities. Children nowadays own gadgets that enable them to get connected online at anytime, even in their bedrooms. If kids are just left on their own, these tech gadgets could lead them to become victims of cyber bullying, cyber sex, identity theft, and the likes. It is best if parents, especially mothers, have a thorough understanding of what kind of technology their kids bring into the home.

When a child asks for a new device, game, or phone, parents should get some information from him or her. Before finally giving in to their child’s request, they need to ask some questions. They can start by asking their child about what the device can do. In doing so, they can get an idea about the device and have a “feel” for it. From here, they can decide whether they would be comfortable letting their child have it. It would help a lot if parents can do their own research on the device.

This can take some time for parents to do, but it is worth the effort. The cyber world adds enormous benefits to the lives of children. But it also has its own limitations when it comes to child safety and security. This is one responsibility of parents that cannot be taken for granted. Parents need to exercise parental control over their children’s internet access. They should not be overwhelmed by technology. When this happens, they cannot do their job of protecting their children on line.

Participants in a free discussion, mostly between concerned groups, shared various observations. One research result showed that 60% of 12- to 15-year-old children use the internet on their own. This leads them to the internet’s prime danger – exposure to pornography. Their inquisitiveness could start with access to sites that show offensive images. They would then start to explore for more images, until they become addicted to pornographic sites.

This age group of children is the most susceptible to risks and they need to be protected. At the same time, these children need to use the internet to make use of the huge abundance of knowledge that it offers. To solve this problem, children should follow some regulations in their interaction with the online world. It appears that parents have the best qualifications as delegates of regulation over their own children. Complicated online safety technology for children can never replace the parents’ authority.

Parents only need more education in dealing with their children’s online safety. One of the ways of implementing this is through collaboration with schools. Digital literacy can be included in the formal curriculum where parents can help a lot. Together with this is the need to strengthen the programs for parental awareness by adding resources. At the start, parents should be made aware of the risks their children are up against whenever they use the internet. This is very vital because it would be hard for parents to control their children if they don’t know where the danger lies.

Working with the schools, other institutions need to join the effort. There are charities, companies, and legislators, which have plenty of resources and expertise to share. Children cannot protect themselves from online dangers without outside help. While the internet can help them a great deal, children need the loving care of their parents in order to stay safe online.

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.

The provisions in the 1998 Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) contain special requirements for websites that permit the access of children under age 13. These websites must get a parent’s permission before they can collect, use or disclose a child’s personal information. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) proposes to revise the definition of personal information. The proposal states that this definition should include geographical location data and other identifiers, such as cookies.

There is also a divided opinion as to the extension of coverage of COPPA, specifically the one covering teenagers. Privacy advocates are saying that Congress should include special protection for teens in order to broaden its privacy legislation. There are representatives from at least two states who proposed a more radical legislation. They would go as far as barring websites from tracking children while they are online.

In addition, the idea of a “web eraser” was again brought up. This is an older proposition, wherein businesses used to provide the mechanism for teens to erase their online tracks. With this, any personal information teenagers leave when they browse, especially in social networking sites, would be deleted once they log out.

At their age, teenagers usually commit the online mistake of giving too much personal information on the sites that they visit. They don’t know that these mistakes can haunt them months, or even years, later. The premise of a privacy advocate group is this: kids need more protection than they have right now.

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.

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.

Another renewal is about to be proposed as February 2011 starts. This means that there would be no PATRIOT reforms that would transpire. The proposal is to extend the bill’s life until December 8, 2011. However, as what previously happened, there would still be no debate. As expected, nobody could have the opportunity to offer amendments to improve the bill.

What seems so “scary” about the bill? Well, it is said that innocent people could be subjected under surveillance. Section 215 of the bill empowers the government to obtain secret court orders. This can be used to access private data such as internet, phone and business records.

The government could also be allowed to allow foreign intelligence wiretaps. This can be used against those people who have no connection to any foreign power or terrorist group. Still, government has the power to tap any phone number, email account or other communications facility of any suspected individual.

The foregoing are provisions of PATRIOT “that should not be renewed”. Critics say that there should be meaningful reforms before finally deciding for extension. For one, there should be a debate so that new checks and balances could be incorporated. This will prevent abuse and thus protect civil liberties.

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.

Not all consumers are aware that they could be tracked online. Because of this they have to be informed. This feature is now integrated in many internet browsers. It is up for the user whether he allows his activities to be tracked or not. But there is another point that should be given consideration. It is the ease of use of this feature. Many users would just ignore features that are difficult to use. Clarity and simplicity are two of the most important criteria.

To protect online privacy, the Federal Trade Commission has recommended ways sometime last year. There are clear and simple ways of opting out of data tracking that consumers can use. This has somehow stirred these internet companies to improve their online privacy and safety terms. This of course is with the guarantee that their businesses would be affected favorably.

There are some loopholes that Congress has to fill in. There is a disagreement between Internet companies having their own goals and consumers having their own wishes too. Congress should at least have a hand in closing this hole. For one, it could oblige all advertising and tracking companies to respect privacy.

It is understandable that online users often casually give out their home address. There’s no problem with it with friends whom you want to be close with. However, if your home address is opened to millions of other online users, there is the problem. Privacy problems may be worse than what you would expect.

Just recently, information was gathered that Facebook shows its users’ home address to developers. Jeff Bowen in one of his posts wrote that Facebook makes these data available in the development platform. Actually, it is not only the users’ addresses but also their mobile phone numbers.

The real problem is with rogue app developers. Graham Cluley was very specific when he pointed out the possible results. These rich data could help rogue app developers to spread their malicious business. This could take the form of spam or cold-calling.

From the simple example above, it is clear that one should be extra careful when comes to uploading his or her home address. When there’s a need to supply this information online, it is best to find out if the application is legitimate or valid.

Cluley also suggested that stricter policies on Facebook’s access policies should be implemented. For example, developers should not be granted access to information. Access would be granted only when they could prove that they are valid. Another alternative would be to require developers to ask users’ approval when using their data.