A clutch of companies offer antiviral programs, capable of detecting viruses before they have the chance to spread. Such programs find the majority of viruses but virus detection is likely to remain a serious problem because of the ingenuity of crackers. One new type of virus, known as polymorphic, evades discovery by changing slightly each time it replicates itself.
Another extremely important issue about they Internet is child pornography. Computer technology is providing child molesters and child pornographers with powerful new tools for victimizing children. The result is an explosive growth in the production and distribution of illegal child pornography, as well as new forms of child predation. Research carried out at Stockholm University identified 5651 postings of child pornography in four discussion groups. Children around the world are being sexually assaulted, molested and exploited by people who also misuse computers and related technology. The abuse is being photographed and distributed to an international marketplace of child pornography consumers via the Internet. That marketplace- along with related Internet sites that encourage child sexual abuse- is leading to new assaults against children. No longer are schools, public libraries and homes safe harbors from sexual pedophiles- people whose sexual fantasies focus on girls or boys- from around the world.
In the past photographs of children being raped, sexually abused and exploited were sold at high prices through tightknit, difficult-to-access networks. Today, those illegal pictures are available for free online, at any hour of the day. Anyone with rudimentary computer skills and an interest in the material can obtain it. Computer networks can also allow pedophiles to identify and contact potential victims without revealing their identities. Often, adult predators pretend to be children until they have gained their victims confidence. Federal law defines child pornography as photographs or video that depict people under the age of 18 involved in sexually explicit conduct- such as sexual intercourse, bestiality, masturbation and sadistic or masochistic abuse. Also prohibited are pictures involving children that include a lascivious exhibition of the genitals or public area .
The Government has introduced a number of measures to deal with pornography and obscene material, including the use on computers. The Criminal Justice and Public Order Act 1998 increased the maximum sentence for possession of indecent photographs of children up to 5 years in prison, a $250.000 fine, or both. People convicted of distributing child pornography face up to 15 years in prison or/and a $300.000 fine. It also gave the police the power to arrest without warrant people suspected of obscenity and certain child pornography offences and greater powers to search and seize obscene material and child pornography. It also closed a potential legal loophole by extending the law to cover simulated child pornography manufactured and stored on computers. In Singapore authorities announced plans to establish a neighborhood police post on the Internet to monitor and receive complaints of criminal activity- including the distribution of child pornography. And in the United States there has been introduced a bill- vocally opposed by civil liberties organizations and computer-user groups- that would outlaw the electronic distribution of words and images that are obscene, lewd, lascivious, filthy or indecent.
However, Federal agencies lack the manpower to cope with all the criminal activity taking place online. Few local law enforcement officers are trained in computer technology. Moreover, Internet providers generally fail to educate their customers about ways to protect children from sexual predators. Few schools or libraries offer real safety training programs for children online. Many parents have no idea what threats exist or even how the technologies in question work.
Last but not least is the report to our privacy when online. These days, the most skilful manipulators of new information and communications technology to build up files on individuals are private companies collecting personal data on tens of millions of people. Simon Davies, the British head of Privacy International, a human rights watchdog group, says that every citizen of an industrialized country appears today in about 200 different data bases. Such mines of information are centralized, sifted through and correlated to produce very detailed profiles of consumers. The files are then resold to all kinds of firms, which use them to sharpen their marketing strategies, assess the economic reliability of customers and adjust to specific commercial demands. The Internet is an ideal tool for this meticulous task of categorizing the population. It is an extraordinary source of data as well as a practical way to handle such information and circulate it.
To make matters worse, the Internet is a world of invisible tracks. You get the impression when you surf the Web that you leave no traces behind you. The truth is rather different. Some sites place spying devices, or cookies , on your computer s hard drive the moment you log to them, so they can tell which pages of the site you have looked at, when you looked and for how long. A survey last year by the Electronic Privacy Information Center (EPIC) showed that a quarter of the 100 most popular sites on the Web use cookies to obtain profiles of their users. When you next visit them, they can present you with advertising tailored to your interests, or even send you without your knowledge programs like Java Applets, which can reconfigure a site according to each visitor s tastes.
Arguments persist that the erosion of privacy is not such a big deal; the economic benefits of information availability and mobility, it is said outweigh limitations on our personal privacy. Is privacy an ethical nicety, an expendable luxury, then, or is it a basic natural right that needs legal protection? Some philosophers and legal scholars have argued that privacy is an intrinsic good, implying that the right to privacy is fundamental and irreducible. Others contend that privacy is more of an instrumental good. Hence the right to privacy is derived from other rights such as property, bodily security and freedom. While both approaches have validity, the latter seems more compelling. It is especially persuasive when applied to those rights involving our liberty and personal autonomy. A primary moral foundation for the value of privacy is its role as a condition of freedom: A shield of privacy is absolutely essential if one is freely to pursue his or her projects or cultivate intimate social relationships
Under the directive, that came into effect on 25 October 1998, the processing of data about ethnic origins, political opinions, religious and philosophical beliefs, trade union membership, health and sex life, is prohibited except where there are special exemptions or derogations. Moreover, in each of the European Union s fifteen Member State, a special authority is to protect individual s rights and freedoms with regard to the processing of personal data. It is to guarantee citizens the right to be informed, to have access to data concerning them and the right to correct it, and to erase data whose processing does not comply with the provisions of the directive. Article 25 states the principle that the transfer of personal data to third countries may only take place if the receiving countries offer a level of protection that is adequate within the meaning of EU legislation.
In a globalized economy where information about consumers is the new gold mine, the stakes are huge, involving no more and no less than the future of all banking and trade transactions, especially electronic. The United States has already gone on the offensive by accusing Europe of using privacy protection laws to erect barriers around the valuable European market of 370 million people. President Bill Clinton s Internet policy adviser Ira Magaziner has even threatened to go to the World Trade Organization (WTO) about it. At the same time he insists that the US is just as concerned to protect the privacy of its citizens as European governments are. And all studies show that Internet commerce can not succeed unless consumers can count on information about themselves being kept confidential.
There are currently about 250 bills relating to the Internet pending in Congress. Many of those deal specifically within privacy. However, only very few of these have become a law. That is largely because the Clinton administration and Congress have taken a largely wait-and-see approach to this conflict. Most lawmakers feel the Internet develops too quickly for static laws to work effectively. Instead, politicians from Vice President Al Gore down are encouraging the Internet industry to regulate itself, while suggesting that their patience is not inexhaustible.
It will be very difficult to regulate the Internet because it is global and decentralized, and it is very hard to identify Internet users. The key is developing something that is enforceable. Good intentions are one thing, but in the self-regulatory environment, if somebody is hurt by the misuse of personal information, who pays? Who provides a remedy to that harmed individual? Nobody does! Privacy is a tough area for personal injury lawyers because it is difficult under our tort law to prove that somebody has been harmed. It is very hard to prove damage to reputation of intentional infliction of emotional distress in cases involving disclosure of personal information.
Many individuals and organizations are now relying more heavily on digital networks as they routinely communicate by e-mail, post messages to electronic bulletin boards on the Internet and visit Web sites. But in the process they become more exposed and vulnerable to those seeking to collect and sell their personal data. When users visit Web sites they often fill out detailed personal profiles that become grist for marketing lists sold to third parties. Digital networks have also made consumer information even more widely and easily available the use of these networks greatly expands the capability of checking up on someone s personal background or receiving an electronic list of prospective customers quickly and inexpensively. Indeed we are moving perilously close to the reality of immediate online personal data.
More disturbing than the loss of our privacy as consumers is the loss of privacy about our financial affairs. Once again government data banks have usually provided the building blocks for these records. Certain financial information that was always in the public domain, such as real estate and bankruptcy records, is now treated as a basic commodity. Data brokers such as Information America, Inc. allow their subscribers quick online access to the county and court records for many states. Their vast databases contain business records, bankruptcy records, lawsuit information and property records, including liens and judgement. By computerizing these real estate records, liens, incorporations, licenses and so on, they become more than public documents. They are now on-line commodities, more easily accessed and distributed than their physical counterparts. In addition, this data can be recombined with other personal and financial background.
The most recent assault on privacy has developed in the health care industry, in which patient records have also become commodities for sale. These records, containing highly sensitive and revealing information, are being collected and stored in databases maintained by hospitals. Thus, medical privacy seems destined to be another victim of our evolving information technologies. By putting so much medical data online without proper safeguards the Government, the Health Care Industry and the Information Industry are clearly undermining the foundation to the confidential doctor-patient relationship.
It seems quite evident that our right to informational privacy- the right to control the disclosure of and access to one s personal information- has been sacrificed for the sake of economic efficiency and other social objectives. As our personal information becomes tangled in the Web of information technology, our control over how that data will be utilized and distributed is notably diminished. Our personal background and purchases are tracked by many companies that consider us prospects for their products or services; our financial profile and credit history is available to a plethora of legitimate users, and our medical records are more widely accessible than ever before. The Net effect is that each of us can become an open book to anyone who wants to take the time to investigate our background.
Another adverse consequence of all these is that we can be more easily targeted and singled out either as individuals or as members of certain groups. Data based technology makes it easy to find and exploit certain groups based on age, income level, place of residence, or purchasing habits. At the same time online data banks now make it especially simple to pinpoint individuals electronically.
If public polity makers do become convinced that privacy is worth preserving, what should be done? Are there any viable solutions? Further complicating the issue, of course, are legitimate economic considerations. Privacy can not be accomplished without incurring some costs. And we can not ignore the economic benefit of acquiring and distributing information and using data as a commercial tool to target the right customers. If the information flow about consumers is overly constrained, a substantial negative economic impact can not be discounted. In addition, there must be stricter controls for an especially sensitive information such as medical data. If a centralized national database becomes a reality, it will be necessary to achieve a broad public consensus on the definition of the health care trustees who should have access to that data.
In summary, then, if informed consent is made mandatory for the reuse of consumer data and there are stricter safeguards for more critical information such as medical data, we can begin to make some progress in protecting privacy rights. But unless we should come to terms with this problem the boundaries between what is public and private could become much more tenuous. A world where privacy is in such short supply will undermine our freedom and dignity and pose a great threat to our security and well being.
But what is the future of the Internet? The Internet is moving from a relatively passive publishing medium to a truly interactive application deployment platform. It will clearly continue to grow at a fast pace as more and more businesses and individuals discover its power. According to Dataquest, the market analysts, a new Internet account is added every two minutes. Whilst there is no guarantee that the businesses connecting to the Net will make it big , it is obvious that those which don t will be left behind. But one thing is certain: The Internet is dynamic, will sustain high growth rates and will serve as the platform for international commerce well into the foreseeable future.
Today the Internet is a highly effective tool for communicating, for gathering information and for cooperation between dispersed locations. There is continuous development and improvement. The growing list of applications serves as testament to this: advertising, communication, shopping, banking, to name just a few. Many businesses are discovering new ways to reach their customers, new ways to improve efficiency, new products and services to sell. The future is limited only by your imagination.
The Internet needs content. It s a medium in desperate need of something to say. In the next 10 years, somebody will figure out how to charge for information on the Net, so you won t get things necessarily for free. That will have several good effects, including a way to pay authors for their work. And because of the economic incentive, it will become easier to filter out the good from the bad.
The Web is like a library that many people access for the sake of ease. They do this rather than go to the library. Therefore, whoever needs to get this information does not have to leave the house. It starts with information, then goes to groceries, furniture, even real estate. Will it ever end? Will it get to the point where people will never have to leave their computers? And why not? If everything you ever needed was at your fingertips, why not just pull a chair up to the computer that lays back into a bed and park it right in front of the bathroom? No one will ever have to leave his or her house. People will become socially inept. Is this the perfect future we are all heading towards?
Questions similar to these have come up every time new sources of information have come around. However, at this point, people still get out and about to find information. We are not recluses yet. Do we have to be? In my opinion, we certainly seem to be heading in that direction and no one is to be blamed but technology itself. Technology can be a good thing, but when traditional ways are given up completely, technology can be a completely bad thing. Many people predict that it will make the world a better and more globally oriented place, but this is hard to say because we can not exactly define what constitutes of a better world.
Arguments can be made for the advantages and disadvantages of the Internet, but most people will agree that the Internet is a boon for technology, the likes of which have not been seen since the advent of the Personal Computer. It is not a question of whether or not the advantages of the Internet outweigh the disadvantages. Rather it is an understanding of the risks and implications of pursuing the use of this type of technology when working to achieve corporate strategic goals. Once the security problems are handled, the costs are streamlined, and the searching algorithms are perfected, the possibilities are endless.