Privacy Issues

With the technological advances in new media, privacy issues have become more relevant and prevailing. Privacy issues involving the internet are the most threatening and controversial. With the public more conscious of their rights, invasions of privacy through these mediums are becoming issues of debate.
There are many privacy threats made each time a person surfs the web. There are various ways that information about you or your activities can be collected without your knowledge or consent. Privacy protection is an important issue to people using e-commerce and online shopping. Online shopping and e-commerce has been a major internet growth area, with individuals now being able to buy numerous products online. Sites such as Facebook too promise privacy protection. Facebook gives their users privacy settings to control who is able to view their page/blog but even then your friend's friends can view up to certain amount of information on your page. Individuals don't realize that even if you giving up small bits of information on different sites, with the new technology, people can come across these vital pieces of information by Googling and they can combine DOB, your name even your address and use this type of information for fraud. Although regulatory bodies and organizations are working to protect civil liberties and privacy it is up the individuals themselves to decipher how much information they want to put out there for everyone to see.