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Internet Privacy

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A Right to Privacy? What a Joke!

It has become a sad and upsetting fact that in today's society the truth is that the right to one's privacy in the I.T (information technological) world has become, simply a joke. In an electronic media article "No place to hide", written by James Norman, two interesting and debatable questions were raised: ‘Are we witnessing the erosion of the demarcation of public and private spaces brought on by the networked economy and new technology?' Also, ‘What roles do government, industry and citizens have in regard to censorship and privacy?' These statements ultimately end with the fact that it is impossible for Net users to expect privacy online, because online privacy doesn't exist. However, one must …show more content…

Finally the individual must be sensible in what he/she does to assure no privacy is invaded, and that their personal details are not publicly displayed on the Net. By the time it has come to be the individual users responsibility, the lack of safety should be reduced and general security must be increased. The best advise that Hugh Martin, the senior media lecturer at La Trobe University, could give on the issue of securing internet privacy was to: "modify techniques to protect privacy offline for online purposes. In other words don't fill in online personal information forms or questionnaires (and set your browser to reject cookies). Cookies are unique identifiers that a Web server places on your computer, to track your every move in a specific site.

So, when James Norman asked the question, ‘What roles do government, industry and citizens have in regard to censorship and privacy?' what was the obvious answer? ‘Bingo', all have a very significant and vital role in the process of privacy protection. The Government will of course outline the Laws that apply to Internet privacy, and they have a duty to control information. However, they need to go a step further that just outlining the laws, they need to toughen the penalties which apply to the breaking of these laws or when someone is in breach of the privacy act. The government must publicly

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