Privacy: March 2013

Saturday, March 30, 2013

The Cat Signal

Cat Signal is a topic I personally have never heard of before. However, after reading a short article I became increasingly intrigued. The Cat Signal is a type of logo that represents a group of followers that generally believe in the same thing regarding a draft law. This law revolves around CISPA: Cyber Intelligence Sharing and Protection Act. Representative Rogers introduced this act and stated that it was aimed to "Protect America's Internet Interests." The idea of this signal was discussed back in 2012, but was just recently released. The followers that are a part of the Cat Signal belong or associate themselves the the IDL: Internet Defense League. The IDL is defined as, "a website with the aim of organizing future online protests of anti-piracy legislation (Internet Defense League 1)." The Internet Defense League website is made to allow ease of access of signing up. Detailed league rules and policies can be found at http://internetdefenseleague.org/. From what I gathered by researching the IDL is that this group of people believe that a new Draft law taking place would take away our privacy, and therefore feel that we must rid ourselves of these Government laws.

How To Install the Cat Signal

Sign up at the IDL website as mentioned above. For more detailed instructions, visit Instructions.
Grab the code. This is something the IDL website will give you automatically once you have signed up
Install on the device of your choice.

What Other's Think

Russia changed their legal system back in 2012 to gain greater control over the Internet
China is currently reviewing their Internet draft law and making revisions
Germany feels they are already protected thanks to their FDPA: Federal Data Protection Act

What does the IDL do?

They claim to "save" the Internet when it is in danger
Leverage their people power for future attacks
Form rallies and protests

Sources

The Other Kind of Cookies

One of the ways websites keep and access our information online is through cookies. A website’s server puts cookies, a small text file, on a computer’s web browser that transmits information retained from web browser back to the website server. Cookies have unique identifiers associated with them and are used to acknowledge returning users, track purchases online, maintain a record of online searches, or maintain customized web pages. Information collected includes search queries, content viewed, users involvement in advertisement activities, and the time along with the length of visit. This collected information can be used by companies for behavioral advertising, which is discussed in a previous post Online Marketing. Google practices behavioral advertising by collecting private data, as described in the video below.

I have always been uneasy about having an automatic log in for most websites, just because I never know who might use my computer and have access to all my information. Individual information like passwords or online shopping carts are examples of data can be retained by the use of cookies. There are many different types of cookies. One type is a session cookie, which expire as a user exits the browser. Another kind is a persistent cookie that may remain for a specified duration of time on a user’s computer. In many cases information collected is typically not distinguishable of personal information (user’s name, physical address, etc). However, it is likely to associate the collected information with personal information that was provided by consumer at the registration of a website. Other devices for tracking online user activities are flash cookies, web bugs and web beacons.

When speaking of the Office of management and Budget (OMB) President Barack Obama states that, “We built this budget around the idea that our country has always done best when everyone gets a fair shot, everyone does their fair share, and everyone plays by the same rules.” The OMB that was issued on June 2000 addresses the use of cookies on Federal websites (GAO, Internet Privacy 1). When agencies use cookies they must:

Provide clear and obvious notification of their use
Have a compelling necessity to gather the data on the web site
Have appropriate and publicly disclosed privacy safeguards for managing information derived from cookies
Have personal authorization by the head of the agency

http://www.gao.gov/new.items/d01424.pdf
http://ispot.tv/a/7dNe

http://www.whitehouse.gov/omb
"What Is a Copyright Alert?" Center for Copyright Information What Is a Copyright Alert Comments.

N.p., 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. Management Information Systems by Laudon & Laudon. Twelfth Edition. Prentice Hall, 2012. ISBN: 0-13-214287-2. Chap 4

Sunday, March 24, 2013

How to Protect Your Information

In today's fast paced world we have a tendency to take the short route-easiest, cheapest, and quickest way-for everything now that we have technology that continues to improve on a hour basis to back us up. It helps to increase our efficiency in our day-to-day lives, but we sometimes forget there maybe consequences to us living in such a fast paced lifestyle.

Here are some simple tips to help keep your information safe from getting placed into the wrong hands.

Learn to resist the temptation to have automatic log-ins on your phones, tablets, and computers. Yes it may save you the trouble of having to remember 20+ account usernames and passwords for various websites, as well as the time it takes to input your log-in information. However, is that minuscule amount of time really worth the chance of getting your identity stolen which can take years to correct all the damage done to your records (credit score, negative bank accounts, possibly your reputation, etc.), or worse case; you never get it corrected and have to live with the debt and other unfortunate consequences?

Always read the privacy policy! I do not mean skimming through or just scrolling to the bottom and selecting accepts terms and conditions. You could be agreeing to allow a website holder to use your information, all and any that they may collect, for their own interests without even knowing you did so because you didn't read a few pages of small print.

Another good tip mentioned in a previous posts, Protecting Your Bank Accounts, do not write your password and username down, because papers can be easily lost and fall into the wrong hands. Try to use things that are easy to remember for you, but not obvious to others. It is best to have longer passwords that contain a combination of, both upper and lower cases letters, numbers, and symbols.

Good password example(s): A random combination of your favorite things, such as, Softball!1983. Try to use a phrase and substitute some of he words with letters and numbers. For example, To Cool For You! can be changed into 2cool4U! (Consumer Information 1).
Bad password examples: Your name(including well-known nickname), address, birth date, etc.

Manage your cookies. Look for the up-coming post to find out what cookies are, and how to control them.
Don't willingly distribute your contact information to just anyone, or any website without doing some research on who will be getting it and what they will be doing with it. Especially be careful with contest and receiving free items just by giving your contact information.

Keep personal information on social networking sites at a minimum. If possible don't post your full name, address, phone numbers, social security number, etc. The more information someone can gather about you the easier it is for them to steal your identity. Also, possibly giving them the information they need to allow them the to access security questions to your account, and access your bank and personal information.

What I have bulleted above are just some suggestions I have came across, or thought of. They are tips meant to help save you some time maybe not in the short run, but most certainly in the long term. Please do not think you need to refrain from using the Internet all together for personal activities. This was just simply for your information only; however, I do hope after reading this you will think twice before acting in online activities and take some of the suggestions listed above into consideration. I know we all are guilty of at least one of these if not all. Although you might not think it can happen to you, you are wrong because unfortunately it can and has happened to many people.

http://www.consumer.ftc.gov/articles/0272-how-keep-your-personal-information-secure#online
http://mashable.com/2012/10/29/stop-online-tracking/

Thursday, March 21, 2013

Protecting your Bank Accounts

In today's society, protecting your identity is a growing concern. Much heartache is brought to those who experience fraudulent activity. Fortunately, there are steps and processes that we the client can follow day to day to help avoid such unfortunate events. Within this article I will go into depth about what is offered to us.

BBT (Branch Banking & Trust)

SecureMessage- This allows you to send secure messages between you and staff members of BB&T. This is done while logged into your BB&T online account through the Internet to insure the identity of the account.
TimeOut feature- You are automatically logged out due to inactivity on the webpage after a certain amount of time.
Firewalls- Used to enforce another layer of protection for their clients
Online Bill Payment Guarantee- Guarantees reimbursement for bank error. BB&T has a 3 day delivery window of all payments. When you opt in to use bill pay, and you choose your date of payment, it shows you the delivery window time. If the payment is delivered outside of that window, and late fees occur, BB&T will take responsibility and reimburse you.
Provisional credit- This feature is used when you submit a fraudulent transaction claim. This policy insures that within 5 days you will receive a provisional credit payment of the money that was fraudulently claimed.

BOA (Bank of America)

Total Security Protection- This is an amazing feature that is not offered by all banks. This refers to zero liability protection. If your identity is stolen you are not held responsible for the charges they made to your account.
Photo Security- BOA offers for your picture to be included on your check card or credit card. By having your photo included, it allows the company to physically verify your that the card you are using belongs to you. This is something that just by including your signature on the back does not allow so this is a great security measure to take.
SiteKey- By definition, is an image for verification of your identity for an extra layer of protection. What this means is that after you enter your username and password a picture will appear on your webpage. An example would be a photo of a truck. You are to confirm that the photo of the truck is the picture of which you chose when setting up your privacy information. Only by choosing the correct photo will the website allow you to continue to the next page.
SafePass- This is a feature you may opt to use once you have downloaded Bank of America's mobile application. This feature sends a 6 digits password to your phone through a text message in which you then enter in into your mobile banking application. This helps to ensure that the same person who owns the phone also owns that specific information used to access the bank account.

Tips to staying secure online

Do not use personal information to create your user name or password. (ie. social security number)
Never write down or share your passwords with anyone you do not trust. I personally keep my password on a portable USB. It is ideal to remember all passwords so there is no trail to them. However, in this day and age we are a part of so many websites that each have different password requirements I feel it is near impossible to maintain or keep up with all of them.
Do not walk away from your computer while signed into your bank account. It is important to always sign or log out.
Go paperless. You may do so by logging onto your bank account and altering your settings. Certain banks even have incentives for doing so such as higher interest rates for your savings accounts.

Sources

Sunday, March 17, 2013

Online Marketing

The practice of behavioral or target advertising has become a marketing tool for a vast amount of online companies. Behavioral advertising is when a collection of a user's data behavior is gathered based on their web site history, past searches, and browsing habits. This method gives companies a competitive advantage by increasing the effectiveness of their advertisements to better suit customers. Individual principals of the stakeholders, such as stockholders, business groups, suppliers and distributors, customers, and the community as a whole, to these companies that are participating in online marketing should be taken into account.

Possible benefits of target advertising for customers include:

Free online content supported by online advertising, as in steaming online media
Advertising tailored to consumer's personal interests
Possible decrease of unwanted or non-related advertising

Some concerns for privacy due to target advertising are:

Customers being in the dark about the data collection by websites

Without knowledge of it even happening
Also, inadequate disclosures to users about the practice of advertising

Availability to acquire and store consumers detailed information

Adding to the risk of personal data-regarding finances, health, or children- falling into the wrong hands, allowing for unexpected uses

Self-Regulatory principles for Online Behavioral Advertising are regulation standards for online advertising and marketing that was set in place in 2009, by the Federal Trade Commission (FTC). However, there is still a disagreement between the advocates of privacy and the online industry over a couple issues. With the one side, privacy advocates wanting not only an opt-in policy at all sites, but also a national do not track list. While the industry disapproves such notions and requests for the only way to shy away from tracking is to have the ability to opt-out (Privacy Law Affecting Online Businesses 1). Although they do agree that in order to deal with behavioral tracking greater transparency and user control is needed. The Network Advertising Initiative (NIA) started in 2000, has been busy trying to increase customer awareness and emphasize importance of responsible business and data management activities. The NIA helps protect consumers' privacy while participating in advertising online by advancing self-regulatory principles for online advertisers.

http://www.atrizadeh.com/lawyer-attorney-2083860.html
http://export.gov/safeharbor/eg_main_018241.asp
http://www.ftc.gov/os/2009/02/P085400behavadreport.pdf
http://www.iabaffiliatemarketing.com/behavioural-advertising-in-affiliate-marketing-new-best-practice-guidelines-launched/
http://www.networkadvertising.org/

Wednesday, March 13, 2013

Enough is enough! Obama takes a stand!

http://jerseynut.blogspot.com/2011/06/obama-blames-us-economic-woes-on-our.html

Enough is enough! President Barack Obama discusses how it is past the time to have set regulations regarding our personal information. A stance Obama discussed that I had not previously thought of was having a reasonable limit on the amount of individual personal information a company can gather from the websites we view. Within the article, Obama Pushed for New Internet-Privacy Law to Protect Consumers, he expresses his concern that his intent is to not hurt Internet companies. When taking my personal privacy into account I tend not to think of how it affects companies; however, it is a topic that needs to be discussed. Obama proposed a law that is currently being passed through Legislation that would better secure our private information from others. Technological companies have made it clear they will fight to keep the "regulation to a minimum." With further research I found an article, Privacy Laws Affecting Online Businesses, which states there are more privacy laws than one individual could possibly imagine. An example of a law that I personally did not think of would be HIPPA. HIPPA stands for Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act of 1996. HIPPA protects our personal health information, and forbids our doctors and their offices from releasing any type of information without our consent. With our health care system recently switching our personal records from paper to a electronic system, health care Internet companies now have a new law to comply with.

http://www.copyblogger.com/state-of-facebook-marketing/

I learned within the article, The State of Facebook: What's Working Now, that the day to day consumer would be more greatly affected than I was aware of. Facebook, Twitter, and other social media networks thrive on the ability to collect and market the populations information. I was shocked to read that Facebook's privacy statement started out as one sentence and is now as long as the United States Constitution. I do not feel there is any need for that many stipulations for any given website! Simplicity, I believe, is the key to ensuring that the majority of the population may understand what is being told to them by a website.

In an article, Watchdog Planned for Online Privacy, it is discussed that government officials are finally seeing the need for improvements on our internet privacy. Representative Joe Barton was even quoted saying, "Better late than never." I understand that no one is perfect but I think if we put a little more effort into prevention we would have less messes to clean up in the future. There is not currently a U.S. Law that protects our information unanimously. The United States government is however currently working on passing one through legislation, so we can better protect ourselves through our own actions.

Citations

Tuesday, March 5, 2013

Less of a Bother?

An interesting article, Study finds websites prying less, was released that discusses how website companies are actually keeping less personal information of their users within the last decade. I was very surprised to hear this. The recent study, conducted by the Progress & Freedom Foundation, showed that the percentage of companies that were retracting user's information dropped by about 10 percent. I understand that there is still work to be done, but I feel like that is a big improvement from where we were headed. Our privacy is still at stake, and a number of measures needs to be taken to help protect what is rightfully ours. The article, Shopping Online, Privacy, Data Protection and Third-Party Tracking states that part of our privacy problem lies with websites posting a privacy statement but not actually carrying it out. Who would have known? I do feel like I have less spam in my spam folder than I used to. I was very intrigued to have a better understanding of what was causing this.
There are three main reasons on why this change is happening:
1) The market place is placing less value on collection
2) There are cut backs due to negative feedback provided by consumers
3) Economic reasons.
I was surprised to hear economic reasons as one of the causes for the change. I thought due to economic reasons websites would push harder to collect information that could help them gain user's interests and thoughts.

On the contrary, I found an article, Websites share user data more often than previously thought, that states that websites are not allowed to construct personal profiles on viewers to better target them for advertising needs. A personal profile is,"a searchable description, highlighting individual interests, contact information, and a photograph' (What is the Meaning of Personal Profile 1). I learned that in fact, however, we the consumer benefit from this because we are highly likely to only receive advertisements for products and services that are related to us and our searches. I personally appreciate this because I do not like when inappropriate emails are sent to me. An awesome idea was mentioned to use a system called a "Do-not-track mechanism." This allows the consumer to push a button that tells the website company that they may not use their personal information for advertising uses. This idea was brought to Congress, and is being considered for being put through legislation. Further research showed there are actually programs already out there that help us protect our private information. Such as, system called Privad which allows your user information to never be saved or h ave your sensitive information gathered. Firefox users have the ability to download this feature at any time.

Sources

Will you suffer Consequences to Copyright Infringement?

When it comes to downloading and sharing of online media illegally through peer-to-peer networks (P2P), some assume that users of the Internet are unaware of what is legal and what is not. The Internet Service Providers (ISPs) started work with the entertainment industries (music, film, and television). They developed the Center for Copyright Information (CCI). The CCI is meant to be an ”education process,” to inform consumers of piracy laws and the significance of copyright protection. Under the CCI, is the creation of the Copyright Alert System (CAS), which is a system that alerts the ISPs of an individuals Internet Protocol (IP) address when online copyright infringement takes place. The Internet Service Providers then, send out a copyright alert to their consumers, warning them of the probable activity of illegal sharing of media through a peer-to-peer happening on their online account. Other uses of the copyright alerts are to educate consumers in how to prevent illegally downloading and sharing online media on a P2P, and providing them with the proper way to access the content legally (What is a Copyright Alert 1).

http://www.copyrightinformation.org/the-copyright-alert-system/

As of now there are only five Internet Service Providers taking part in the CAS, which include Time Warner, Verizon, AT&T, Cablevision, and Comcast. In hopes of human righteous, the Center for Copyright Information thinks that most of their consumers will change their illegal ways for a more ethical path of obtaining online media. However, if the consumers decide to be rebellious against this moral movement the ISPs has the authority to take action to affect their Internet experience. According to the Center for Copyright Information possible actions include; “a short-term reduction in Internet service tier short-term decline in Internet speed, and redirection to a landing page for a set period of time, until a consumer contacts the ISP, or until the consumer completes an online copyright education program” (What Is a Copyright Alert 1).

I’m not sure how this has not shot up any red flags for being against privacy laws. Privacy is the right of an individual to be let alone or being free from being observed or disturbed by other people. In my opinion this Copyright Alert System goes against the third and fourth amendments. It affects the third amendment because it states the right of privacy of the home. The fourth amendment is affected by unreasonable searches and seizures and right to probable cause-which is difficult considering consumers are held responsible for making sure their Internet account is not used for copyright infringement, when there is still the possibility of some consumer’s Internet being hacked into.

http://www.cbsnews.com/8301-205_162-57571307/copyright-alert-system-launches-isps-to-send-notice-of-illegal-downloads/

http://www.copyrightinformation.org/

http://www.copyrightinformation.org/the-copyright-alert-system/what-is-a-copyright-alert/

http://www.techdirt.com/articles/20130222/14191722072/six-strikes-officially-begins-monday.shtml

"What Is a Copyright Alert?" Center for Copyright Information What Is a Copyright Alert Comments.
N.p., 2013. Web. 27 Feb. 2013. Management Information Systems by Laudon & Laudon. Twelfth Edition. Prentice Hall, 2012. ISBN: 0-13-214287-2. Chap 4