Privacy discussions have been around for a long time and will remain as technology continues to improve. Most of the discussions deal with the handling of private information. Aside from profits, internet companies have to deal with minimizing users’ risks. Because of this, it is foreseen that organizations will craft stronger privacy policies. There will be massive use of encryption, web filtering and other forms of risk management.

There is a shift in handling privacy and confidentiality of location-based information. Both consumers and corporations are now working together for it. Companies have to deal with protection of personally identifiable information as GPS technology becomes more advanced. There is also a conflict in providing real-time information, especially those that are location-based. However, there is also a pressing need to provide services concerning where people are during any given time.

Nearly one-fourth of total time spent online goes to social networking. Along the process, social networks gather a host of personal information. It is because users have the tendency to unmindfully provide their data. As the amount of data accumulates in the databases of these companies, there is an increasing danger of breach. There is a potential risk for exposing these millions of data that contains identifiable personal information.

Flink12 is a new social network that puts privacy first. What is a Flink? A Flink is a group of twelve cows. Flink12 allows you to create individual groups of twelve people or Flinks for your friends, family, or coworkers. These Flinks allow you to communicate in a discreet way, sharing professional information with coworkers and personal information with friends and family. These groups of twelve are ideal for sharing different information for different types of relationships. How private, safe and secure is the information into Flink12? Unlike some social networks, Flink12 gives users complete control of their information. Flink12 shares your information only with the people you add to your Flinks. You and your friends on Flink12 are “invisible” and therefore not search-able by search engines such as Google. And, Flink12 will never sell your information to third parties. Try it out at: http://www.flink12.com

As children grow to maturity, parents need to “teach” them about privacy as to time and space. The home is a place where children first experience the values of trust and responsibility. Children need to live with parents who are role models of these values. Giving children the privacy that they need is the first step.

Parents sometimes get disturbed when their child starts to ask for his or her own private time. Children will find it difficult to learn to develop trust and responsibility if this is not handled with respect. The best that parents can do is to talk with their child. Children need to talk about why he or she needs to be alone.

It is very essential for parents to know why the child needs some private time and space. Then, they should discriminate whether their child does not lie. It is also imperative that they make certain the reason is just part of growing up, and not hiding something. There is something wrong with a child who needs to be alone too often – he or she needs counseling.

Not long ago, people discovered how they can use the internet in a hundred and more ways. Then, they unmindfully provided personal information to various websites that they visited. Later, they were surprised that their shared information had become public. For many, it is already too late to find out which of their visited websites made the information publicly available.

Indeed, many internet users want to regain some degree of their privacy. Looking back and finding out how it happened would put the blame only on them. Typically, users would not take time to read a website’s privacy agreement. It is here where the details of how their shared data will be treated. Probably because of the litany of very small fonts to read, users would blindly agree or accept the terms and conditions. Ironically, they shared some personal information to many sites which they do not even bother to visit again.

Social networking sites and other companies present upfront to their subscribers how their information will be treated. But it would be safe to assume that more than 75% of subscribers do not know about this. Or, at least, at first they did not really care about the so-called privacy. Unluckily for them, they just knew later that third parties may be given access to this information. Considering that a lot of information is public domain, it is not surprising to know how this can easily spread.

There is an ever growing need for people to get connected to the internet for different reasons. As they do so, they are also giving out some personal information and make this available online. Users who use social networking and “buy and sell” sites have in one way or another uploaded their email address. Because they do it regularly, they no longer think of the consequences of loosening up their privacy.

Online privacy is one of the hottest issues when comes to internet usage. Critics and supporters of online privacy question the way some websites gather and use publicly available user information. Technology has allowed some websites to mine personal information by just having a user’s name and an internet connection.

However, due respect should be given to those legitimate sites that mean legitimate business. There are hundreds of them out there whose purpose is to help improve the online experience of users. Spokeo gathers publicly available information about people in order to help other people. This information could range from addresses to pictures of people’s homes, marital status, hobbies, and others. The website organizes this information into a meaningful database that users can use.

It is time to unplug those computers and TVs so that families can spend more quality time with their household members. Family time continues to decline as time spent by family members on the internet and watching TV increases. A study on American families revealed that household members are spending more and more time on the internet than with other household members. Among others, results showed that an internet user spends 3 hours online every day and 1.7 hours daily in watching TV.

The home is slowly losing its role as an emotional cradle. There is an erosion taking place as more adults are paying no attention to their partners and children, and children are not minding their parents and siblings. The family is considered to be the molder of future leaders and productive citizens. In the home, adults and children are expected to experience and share love and to translate this to the larger community. It is here where trust, support, kindness, and how to handle anger, loss, embarrassment, etc. are “caught” by growing children. Adults become role models as they continue to grow emotionally and try to live life to the fullest.

Nothing can take the place of the home as an emotional cradle. Today, many teenagers behave as if they are smart, but many of them lack emotional intelligence. To simplify things, many of them do not know how to “read” other people or even their own selves. Emotional intelligence refers to a person’s ability to understand, read, and manage his or her own emotions. One can only learn these if he or she is given the time to live, work, and play with real people.

The EFF, or Electronic Frontier Foundation, is the first line of defense for consumers’ digital rights. It was founded as a non-profit organization in 1990 and based in San Francisco, California.  It is well known for its advocacy in digital rights, as well as its work in defending personal freedoms and consumer rights. The EFF is funded mainly from individual donations, a large portion of which is then used for litigation. Since its inception, the foundation has won many digital rights cases and is still battling to win more.

Its founders were John Perry Barlow and Mitch Kapor, who at first did not know each other.  Before its formal founding, Barlow experienced how a law enforcer displayed unfamiliarity with the emerging forms of online communication.  This, according to him, would put consumer civil liberties at risk.  He posted an account of this experience to an online community.  He was then contacted by Mitch Kapor, and that started it all.

Kapor provided the initial funding for legal fees.  Then, working together, they sought the services of five New York lawyers.  The initial victories of their endeavor spread so fast that it attracted John Gilmore and Steve Wozniak to put in funding.  After the foundation was formally formed in July 1990, Kapor, Wozniak and an anonymous benefactor provided the foundation’s initial funding.

More and more users are becoming aware of their privacy on the internet. It seems that online crime and fraud have entered into the consciousness of users. Gone are those days when users did not care about setting privacy limits in their surfing activities. Today, they want to know how their shared information will be handled. There are an increasing number of users who seek fraud protection from retailers.

There was a recent survey regarding online fraud consciousness of users. It was conducted jointly by a privacy research firm and a fraud prevention service provider. Its results revealed that 85% of users today worry about becoming an online fraud victim. This is higher compared to the 80% the last time the same entities conducted a similar study. The latest results gathered from the sample population implied that users are worrying about identity theft, credit card scams, spam, phishing, and others.

The respondents said that web retailers should intensify their efforts to combat online fraud. They said further that retailers should do their best to stop online criminals from stealing consumer information. They even expressed their willingness to be identified online if there are trusted sites. From the survey, a good number of respondents suggested the use of computer serial number, ISP, computer type and make for authentication purposes. This is an alternative to the usual personally identifiable information like telephone number and date of birth.

An inquiry is going on regarding the lawful use of Data Extraction Devices (DEDs) by the Michigan State Police (MSP). The American Civil Liberties Union (ACLU) is asking for an explanation about how these devices are being used. These relatively new devices can extract almost all vital information stored in a cell phone. These could include contact lists, photos, and even deleted messages.

CelleBrite is the manufacturer of this powerful DED. The company said that among its customers are Sprint, Verizon, AT&T and some other communications companies. DEDs have been successfully used commercially to transfer data when a phone is upgraded. The same manufacturer explained, on its website, the capacity of the device. Under normal operation, it can recover even deleted and hidden data, and can access contact lists, photos and text messages.

The critics are concerned about how the device is used by the police and not on its intended use by the manufacturer. Considering that the police force is using it as an investigative tool, the concerned groups want to be certain that there is no privacy violation. The ACLU doubts that there could not be a possible intrusion to privacy during the performance of searches. There might be abuses committed by officers just to obtain information.