Some have the false premonition that celebrities and other “big players” are larger than life, and protected as such. Some would think that hackers and criminals would only prey on the average civilian, but this is not true. Celebrities represent credibility, and wealth. If a hacker were to gain access to a famous person’s credit card, you can be sure they would go to town with it, knowing the celebrity is rich. If a hacker simply wanted to get a message out, posing as a good speaker would be a good idea. These are often obviously fake though, and discredited quickly. If a hacker were to gain access to a celebrities e-mail account however, they would have access to the fan list millions long.

This has just recently happened. A Green Party representative Peter Ellis, recently had his e-mail hacked. The criminal got his password, and went on posing as Peter Ellis himself. He then sent out an e-mail requesting money from any of his supporters, saying that he was on a trip to help out his sick daughter, who needed money for an immediate medical procedure. Anyone who knew Ellis knew his daughter was only eight years old and in perfect health.

The e-mail was sent out to many of the people on Ellis’ contact list. It requested a loan of $1500 dollars be sent to a Belleville address. After Peter figured this out, he quickly called HotMail and had them deactivate his account. One of Peter’s friends tried to catch the crook by feigning interest, but no one knows if it led to an arrest.

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Motorists have been the subject of many criminal investigations lately. Being that they have to the ability to leave the scene of the crime so quickly, methods are being employed to try and stop this unrestricted crime spree. First, there were cameras installed on police cars to tape chases and give indisputable evidence. Then, there were cameras installed on traffic lights to catch speeders and those who run the lights, and mail them a hardy ticket and a picture of themselves speeding. Now, in San Francisco, they wish to photograph every car that passes through the small town of Tiburon, to try and prevent crime and track criminals.

This city is full of many extremely swanky houses and is thusly a strong target for criminals hoping to make some money robbing the rich. The town proposes to take a picture with pre-installed cameras of every vehicle’s license plate that enters the city. They say that this will help combat crime in the some nine-thousand citizen city. People are a bit afraid as top the privacy repercussions this ratification could render, but the Town Manager assures everything will be anonymous and safe, provided you don’t come in on a stolen car or anything. If you are an average, law-abiding citizen, this will affect you absolutely zero says the Manager.

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As soon as you visit SystemBypass.com, you know they are all business, right from the get-go; “Internet Privacy” is posted in lucid font right at the top of every page you visit, reminding you why you are here. As soon as the site is loaded, blog posts with a myriad of Internet topics pop-up. The site is very aesthetically pleasing too; a soft gray background with inciting pictures of dog-eared newspapers goes hand-in-hand with the theme of privacy and security. Luckily, there’s no annoying cycling music, no flashing art graphics to give you seizures, and no fluorescent text to make your eyes hurt when you log off. The big RSS hot air balloon in the corner of the screen reminds you how compatible the site is; broadcasting in RSS format helps people who cannot access the site or have the time to read it in text format. Safe web browsing, security and privacy online, and even an insight into hacker’s tactics! The last is quite unique. The site actually explains and gives complete guides on how hackers do their malicious jobs. While this site does not condone hacking or Internet privacy, it does something totally unique in where it will actually show you “tutorials” on hacking, so you can avoid putting yourself in those sketchy circumstances. The best defense is a good offense, and you always need to know your enemy.

The whole site is laid out in a very professional, and easy to navigate manner. There are “Home” and “About” buttons at the top of the screen. “About” gives you a concise history, conscious of brevity, and explains their goals and aims. “Home” brings you right back to the meat and potatoes of the site: the posts. Every post is laid out in a thumbnail fashion; you are given a bit of preview text, and if you are interested, click it and read the rest. Once on the expanded version of the article, you can then post a comment to give your opinion, vent your feelings, or just add a bit of extra information.

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PayPal runs a tight ship on security. Even as a first-time buyer, they have all sorts of information about you. They can access records of other sites you have went to and find your e-mail records too, but not for a bad purpose; they judge whether you are a criminal or not.

People leave all sorts of information online, and much of it is harmless. Imagine it as a trail of breadcrumbs; this is what companies use to determine whether you are a potential criminal or not. PayPal tracks these little signs all the way back to the source. Their philosophy is that even safety conscious people leave a small trail while surfing the web, and only criminals are completely untraceable.

PayPal asserts that the secret to their success is their rigorous security measures. Even before they were purchased by Ebay, they had a leg up over the competition by allowing consumers to purchase items and merchandise by credit card. Most companies would not allow this due to the risk of an interception of the transaction, or just a simple inherent fear of trusting an anonymous person over the web with this sensitive information. They have always been more wary of sellers than buyers though, because it would be easy for a vendor to get their money and take their merchandise and skip town, as is the cliché of Internet scammers.

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Internet companies have been in lawmakers sights lately over the treatment of information they gather from their surfers, and how well protected it really is. Essentially, these behavioral advertisers track where you have been and bring you related advertisement. That wouldn’t fly in real life, and people are tired of it happening online.

Lawmakers in the House are taking action. They are writing laws and other new documents that propose to limit the amount of unauthorized snooping that goes on when Internet companies look at your browsing histories. They also wish to educate the public on how they could better protect themselves while online.

While the bill is being debated in congress, there is not enough energy to go all around, with health care and energy conservation taking up most of the floor time. The issue isn’t pigeonholed though, and it will up for consideration next year.

Google, Yahoo, and other search engines and sites to be affected by this bill are a bit torn on where they stand: they want people to have their privacy, but at the same time, they make money through these advertisers.

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