Internet and Privacy Essay

There has been a lot of controversy about the internet and its privacy. Today, some say you have no privacy with anything you do on the web. They say that the government is taking away the public’s privacy because they can monitor everything that happens on the internet. Even though most of this is true, there are plenty of good things to come from it. In this essay I will be writing about the internet and its privacy. The lack of privacy that comes with technology and the internet can and has prevented a lot of crimes to occur. It has made credit card fraud, once an easy crime much harder to get away with. They know what you’re buying schedule is like, so if someone steals your card and tries to buy something that is not something you would normally buy, you will get an alert about it. Security cameras at stores and ATM’s prevent a lot of robberies from occurring. The government states that the main reason why they monitor just about everything on the internet is to try and catch terrorist attacks before they happen. They have said that some of the terrorist plane hijackings could have been prevented if they had the internet security that they do now. Of all the good things that come with the internet, there are also some drawbacks that can be dangerous. There is just as much false information on the internet as there is true information. Hackers can create viruses that can get into your personal computer and ruin valuable data. They can also create viruses to steal personal valuable data such as identity theft. There are also people called â€Å"predators† that hang out on the internet waiting to get unsuspected people into dangerous situations. People can get addicted to the internet which can cause problems with interacting with their friends and family. As it is stated in What Matters in America, â€Å"Like any space where people gather, the virtual world is not immune to the same set of troubles we face in real life. Teens and children can be targeted be sexual predators. Kids can â€Å"cyber bully† classmates, carrying the tortures of the playground onto cell phones and computer screens at home. Illicit romances and online flirting may be taken beyond laptops, ruining relationships and destroying marriages. And, of course, cybercrime is ever present, seeking log in numbers, financial data, and credit card information†. (22) Privacy has become a big question in today’s society with all this new technology and the internet. The internet might be more secure today from hackers and viruses but we don’t really have any privacy on the web. Every purchase we make on the internet can be tracked by the government. They can also track almost every phone call that is made. The internet has become more convenient to use than it ever has been. You can perform just about any task you want with a couple mouse clicks. Your computer can remember everything you do on the internet. It will save all the sites you have been to, what you have downloaded, what you have bought online, and can even save your credit card information. When online you will see recommended web sites based on what you normally do online and even on certain sites there will be recommended products that are similar from what you have purchased before. All this personal information can be easily looked at by the government or even professional hackers. Is our privacy really being invaded or are we just putting this information out there? People say that the government is invading the public’s privacy. They say that they shouldn’t be allowed to monitor the internet. I don’t believe our privacy is being invaded because no one forces you to put this information online, even though it is hard not to in today’s society. In What Matters in America, David Plotz states, â€Å"Real privacy is what allows us to share hopes, dreams, fantasies, fears, and makes us feel we can safely expose all our faults and quirks and still be loved. Privacy is the space between us and our dearest, where everything is known and does not matter. † (70) With all this advanced technology on the internet, we need the government to monitor it or else there would be a huge amount of criminal activity and the internet would not be safe.