Millions of people, every day, depend on one piece of electronic equipment to do just about everything:  their smartphone.  Back in the day, very few people had cell phones, and those that did used them to make emergency calls every now and then.  Over the years, the simple cell phone has evolved into the smartphone.  The smartphone is a multi-functional device that allows a person to send e-mail, update social networking, shop on line, play games and do anything else that can be done on a computer.  Many cars have built in GPSs, but if yours doesn’t, that’s OK because you can use your Navigation app on your smartphone.  In fact, one of the least used functions of a smartphone today is actually the one that allows you to make phone calls.  It’s amazing that this one, small device can do so much, but what does this mean when it comes to privacy?  Because the smartphone holds a large quantity of personal information regarding our shopping habits, social networking, e-mail and even banking, it now makes it easier for you to be tracked and targeted for on-line ads. 

Every day, more and more people are downloading hundreds of apps made specifically for the smartphone.  If you’re low on gas, the GasBuddy app can tell you which station has the lowest prices with the shortest wait time (which came in handy during SuperStorm Sandy when gas prices went up and the lines were hours long!).  Banks now offer apps that make it easy to deposit a check from anywhere.  All you have to do is snap a picture of your check using your smartphone and it’s deposited into your account.  If you’re in unfamiliar territory, you can count on Google Maps to find directions to the hotel or restaurant where you are to have your business meeting, then after the meeting, you can use the e-mail function to check in with your office to let everyone know the status of that big project.  After your workday is done, you can relax in your room and read your local newspaper, watch your local news, update your social networking status, play games or even read a book.  If you’re feeling under the weather, just log onto WebMD and enter your symptoms to get a quick diagnosis or if you are having trouble with your toddler, you can check in with your favorite parenting site to see what others have done to remedy the issue.  You are never far from home or the office as long as you have your smartphone.

 But what does all this convenience mean to your privacy?  Every site you log on to and every app you download requires you to enter some personal information, which is all saved to your smartphone.  Don’t forget that many on-line businesses share information gathered with third parties.  Is it worth risking your privacy in order to have the convenience of doing just about everything from this one device?  Surprisingly, most people choose convenience over privacy.  They feel that entering a birth date or zip code in order to have 24 hour access to websites no matter where they travel is well worth the effort.  They don’t realize how this can jeopardize their privacy since millions of people may live in a particular zip code and millions more can have a particular birth date.  One important factor isn’t taken into consideration:  only one person has that zip code and birth date on that particular smartphone.

 Each time you enter personal information for a smartphone app or download, you are risking your privacy.  On-line marketers can use your information in order to target you for specific ads.  They know what city your home is in from your zip code, they know your age from your birth date, they know which websites you frequent, and through the GPS function on your smartphone, they know where you are at any given time.  Add your e-mail address into the mix and these marketers can fill your inbox with ads for more apps, shops, products or anything else.  Your browser will also be giving you suggestions on apps or products you may be interested in because your history shows what you have purchased or downloaded.

 App developers claim that a consumer must give their personal information in order to really benefit from their apps.  There is, however, some debate as to what the risks to privacy are that has even Congress involved.  As of now, what is being discussed the most is a way for consumers to choose a “Do Not Track” option on the sites they frequent but, so far, there is no solution to the privacy issue.

Privacy is a big concern for all of us.  Every day, we hear about new things that will force us to give up at least a part of our privacy.  One of the newer things being proposed is the installation of “black boxes” (or event data recorders) in all light trucks and new cars.

The reasoning behind this is so that investigators will be able to understand what is causing car accidents, so the information could be used to build safer automobiles.  At this time, there are no policies in place regulating how the information will be used.  This is an issue for privacy advocates, who are concerned that the information will be used for other purposes.

What consumers don’t realize is that automakers have been putting these devices into new cars for quite a few years.  If a car is involved in an accident and the airbags are deployed, sensors in the car record and save information on the last 5 to 10 seconds before the crash occurred.  The information will tell investigators the speed of the car, if the driver made any sudden turns, or even if the driver and passengers were wearing their seat belts.

A good and very public example of this happened in April 2007.  Governor Jon Corzine of New Jersey was involved in a serious car accident on the Garden State Parkway.  He was a passenger in an SUV driven by a State Trooper.  The recorder in the SUV determined that the vehicle was traveling at 91 MPH in a 65 MPH zone and that Governor Corzine was not wearing his seat belt, which is mandatory under New Jersey law.  Governor Corzine pleaded guilty to the seat belt ticket and paid the fine.

Another incident of this type involved Lt. Governor Timothy Murray of Massachusetts.  He was involved in an accident where his Ford Crown Victoria went off the road and rolled several times.  Murray walked away from that crash and told investigators that he was traveling at “around the speed limit” and was wearing his seat belt.  The black box evidence proved otherwise.  It showed that the Lt. Governor’s speed was around 101 MPH and that the seat belt was not in use.  Murray then changed his story to say that he must have “dozed off” and accelerated, but that was disputed by experts.  He was given several tickets and forced to pay over $500 in fines. 

Are you being tracked?

Imagine this:  you’re on a cross country road trip with some friends and you’re being followed.  Should you panic?  Well, only if you have something to hide, because it’s the police who are electronically following you with license plate scanners.

Yes, police departments all over the country are equipping their cars with license plate scanners.  These scanners are capable of “following” any car all over the United States and Canada.  Even if you are a law abiding citizen, you are not exempt from being scanned.

Law enforcement officials see these scanners as a valuable tool in fighting crime.  Privacy advocates see it as an invasion of privacy.  Each license scanned will be kept in a huge nationwide database.  Mark Silverstein, who is the legal director of the ACLU’s branch in Colorado said of the scanners and database, “You’re talking about a record of movements over time of hundreds of thousands of innocent persons.  It certainly is extremely powerful technology.”  ACLU offices in 38 states are currently trying to learn more about how the government is using these scanners and how the information gathered is being used.

Colorado State Highway Patrol Captain Dave Santos countered Silverstein’s take on the scanners.  “I don’t see the violation of privacy.  I just don’t.”  He went on to say that it’s “similar to you writing down the license plates that you see on the roadway.”  Other groups have said that the scanners simply snap pictures on public roadways, where drivers shouldn’t expect privacy.  He added that they are tracking license plates, not people.

The “Download Your Information” tool was first introduced by Facebook in 2010. This was used to retrieve all users’ videos and photos, wall posts, sent and received messages, and about 5 other categories of information that users uploaded. Downloadable as a .zip file, users were able to make a back up of what they have previously uploaded to the social networking site.

Privacy issues about Facebook’s access to private information and its advertising services prompted critics to ask the company to improve the tool. They urged the company to let users know of other information that it stores about them in its database. The aim is for users to become conscious of how much data they have shared so that they could have more control over it.

There are high hopes that by the end of 2012, consumers will enjoy the benefits of tighter online privacy rules. This optimistic view is based on recent positive responses by companies to adopt the final recommendations set forth as best practices in privacy protection. The Federal Trade Commission (FTC) is confident that by backing tighter online privacy laws, consumers’ data will not be abused. Instead, consumers can enjoy new services without sacrificing their privacy.

At this time, companies are already working to include privacy into every project that they have. Focus is given on how people’s data is kept safe and to control how much is collected. As part of consumer empowerment, they should have the option to decide what information about them is being shared. This can be made possible if there is a “Do Not Track” mechanism that consumers can use to control the tracking of their activities.

What good would tighter online privacy rules give to consumers? The basis of all these discussions is the fact that there have been many privacy violations. Consumers do not exactly know that they are being tracked online. They also do not know that their personal data is collected and either directly used or sold to other companies. Most of all, consumers do not know the ways that they can protect their privacy.

There are about 800 million Facebook users around the net. With this staggering number, it is safe to say that this social networking giant is really becoming a household name. These users are from different groups – according to age, profession, online preferences, or even reasons for joining. This internet giant has drastically changed the lives of these people. In fact, many of them could not let a day pass without having shared pictures, posted comments, visited digital links, and so much more.

The pressure put on those who still refuse to join the social networking phenomenon is really strong. Whether they are technophobes or privacy advocates, these people are not spared from the draw to conform to what others are interested in. There were those who, for many years have continued to resist, but are now hooked on making more and more “friends” every day. Actually, they admitted that they should have known of the benefits of having a social networking account way earlier.

The continuous increase in data breaches at health care providers has raised privacy concerns. There were some studies conducted in order to find out the main cause of these breaches. Some of the hospitals surveyed said that it is due to insufficient funding for security. Others said that lost or stolen devices contributed greatly to the sudden surge in data breaches. The first reason could be attributed more to the government’s priorities in dispensing funds, but the second one seems to point to human error, or the lack of knowledge on the part of the health care professionals on how to secure patient data.

Mobile technology is now widely used in almost all private and public organizations. The use of smartphones or tablets has made it very convenient for people to manage data. Doctors and other health care professionals are now using these gadgets for electronic health records. These tools, as observers point out, lack the much needed, required security. Working on their own, some doctors are using these gadgets without ample knowledge on the use of encryption technology, or even passwords.

It’s just a few days before Christmas and many parents will be giving their kids tech toys. The items that can always be found on children’s wish lists are smartphones, tablets, and computers. Parents would gladly say “yes” and then share in their kids’ happiness, watching them click or tap their newest cherished possession. However, just as other parents will always include a helmet when they give their child a bike, technology gifts should also come with safety measures.

There are many parents out there who do not realize the need to child-proof these devices. These open the world of the web for children to explore. Parents should make sure that their kids do not stumble upon the unpleasant side of the internet. Kids have vulnerable young minds and there are a lot of “bad” sites online that could cause them permanent harm.

Children who are left without protection might open a Pandora’s Box with their tech toys. The world online contains millions of x-rated web pages, violent videos, websites with disturbing topics from gambling to guns, and many more. Parents should take this seriously and they should look for software that could help sort out the good from the bad.

Everybody seems to be interested in everyone else’s privacy. Different privacy issues crop up from one day to another, and people might lose their privacy if it is left unguarded. This time, there is another issue that privacy advocates have observed besides those of online matters. Shopping cards have now been included as one of the items that pose privacy risks.

There are doubts about supermarkets collecting a great deal of consumer data via electronic shopper cards or e-cards. This vast amount of information could then be combined with other biometric technology. With some data processing, a person’s in-depth personal database could be easily built. All of this could occur without the consent or knowledge of the person concerned.

What is the big deal about shopping cards getting onto the list of items that pose privacy risks? Studies were conducted to find out how stores can attract people to use their cards. Card experts say that shoppers do not receive special benefits with e-cards, despite the good offers. There is no real savings because the prices of the items that are included in the “deals” are usually marked up.

Meaning of words can sometimes cause misunderstanding especially when viewed by different groups. In legal standpoint, the meaning of a word can significantly affect the coverage of a law. Just like in the case of the Freedom of Information Act, the word “personal privacy” was interpreted by some to include “privacy of corporations”. The Court of Appeals for the Third Circuit in Philadelphia made such a decision.

The Freedom of Information Act was helpful in making open those documents that used to be out of the public’s eyes. It has made a distinction between those documents that can be divulged and those that cannot. Disclosure of facts gathered for law enforcement would be tantamount to “invasion of personal privacy” because these are considered private. Personal privacy is protected while the people’s right to know is also served. The abovementioned provision is stipulated in the law’s “exemption 7”.

What brought about such debate on word meaning? According to the appeals court, the phrase “personal privacy” is meant to include corporations. It further added that the word “personal” is the adjectival form of “person”. Because F.O.I A. defines “person” to include “corporation”, then it follows that personal privacy includes corporations.