Privacy On The Internet Essay -- essays research papers

Privacy on the Internet   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ever feel like you are being watched? How about having the feeling like some one is following you home from school? Well that is what it will be like if users do not have the privacy on the Internet they deserve. EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), a advocacy group that has been fighting the Clinton Administration for tougher online consumer protection laws, and other privacy protection agencies have formed to protect the rights and privileges of the Internet user. With the U.S. Government, EPIC has had to step in and help small companies and Internet users with their own privacy problems, hackers getting into their systems and ruining the networks, and crackers stealing and decrypting private information. They have also helped with trying to stop the “IPv6';, an every day occurring problem from eventually taking over the already used widely IP addressing system. Intel also has had a feud with the government about privacy issues. When their new chi p came out, the Pentium III it had skeptic problems with its serial number feature. That is why I strongly agree with EPIC and what they are representing, privacy on the Internet.   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Say you were on the Internet surfing around, would you want every site that you have visited to know who you are and almost every thing about you? No. That is why Intel had to disable their serial number feature in the new Pentium III. With this feature, each site on the Internet that you have visited could use this number to look you up and see who you are and almost every thing about you. Before released Intel told the U.S. Senate that they had disabled this function on every chip, but when these chips where out on the market for a while, programming companies found a way to go back in and enable this function without the computer user knowing it. So when the Senate heard this, Intel had yet another feud with its little problem. When the dust all settled Intel was to put this now option into the BIOS of every computer that had the PIII (Pentium III) installed on them. When the user opened up the BIOS there was now an option to either enable or disable the serial number on the chip. But since not many people know how to get into the BIOS of a computer it is hard for this option to be accessed. And once again Intel was back in the c... ... There’s no doubt there are serious privacy concerns for Internet users, about  ¼ of them don’t understand what is going on or just plainly don’t care about the risks that are involved. And what the future will bring if we don’t get our act in control?   Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  Ã‚  In conclusion, with our privacy at risk we the people need to become more aware of what is at stake. Our privacy on the Internet, or privacy in our lives. It is now the public’s turn to speak up. We need to make our voices heard on these big privacy issues so we don’t end up losing every thing that this country has worked so hard for. We need to stand up and help EPIC and other protection agencies to help them help us. Our privacy is at stake and we need to control it, because without our privacy who knows what might happen in the years to come. Maybe people listening in on your telephone conversations or cameras in your house to make sure you are not doing anything wrong. Stand up for what you believe and lets end this once and for all. Privacy is what every American needs and America needs privacy. Get in the act now, privacy on the Internet.