I know, it’s an odd title for a post: “Cell Phone Creepiness”.  But when you read this article in BusinessWeek, I guarantee that you will be creep-ed out too.

We all know that cell phones can be tracked geographically.  There are even applications for that.  A reasonable use might be to track where your child is by their cell phone, although your child might not think it’s reasonable.  But consider this, the cell phone company knows who you are.  Couple that with the positioning, and they can determine where you are.  Maybe not so bad yet???

Now consider this.  According to the article, a group of researchers have been able to determine your approximate income, your likes and dislikes and even if you just got fired, all from the locations that you frequent.  They do this by using aggregate data on millions of users to determine patterns.  Depending upon your pattern, or if you break your pattern, they can deduce a lot about you.  Now that’s just creepy.  Add that to the fact that the cell phone provider knows who you are and your privacy is gone.  You might as well walk around naked with sign showing your net worth.

Think I’m exaggerating?  Read the article for yourself on BusinessWeek.

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Nearly everyone is on some social networking site these days. While this is good in the sense that everyone can stay connected, there are some detrimental effects as well. People need to be better about delineating what is good information to post, and what is bad information to post. Teachers and their scandalous web pages consorting with students are all over headlines these days, and not in a good way. The problem may be the people for the most part and their indiscretion, but the companies may be at fault as well.

Recently, Canadians have had a bone to pick with social networking giant FaceBook. Although the website lays out all sorts of privacy guidelines and other protections to be granted towards the consumer, the Canadian Privacy Agency accuses them of being all talk. Canadians represent about twelve million of their two-hundred and fifty million users.

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Instead of showing your drivers license anymore, you can simply have it scanned by someone with a scan machine. The technology originally used on many devices, and most notably the EZPass (a driver’s mechanism that automatically pays when you go through tolls so you don’t have to stop) has been transferred to Identification cards, and is raising some eyebrows even though it is supposed to be there for convenience.

This technology actually collects data automatically from anyone in a bar setting, who is consuming alcohol. This scanner saves data such as phone numbers, drivers license numbers, names, photos, gender, and even the amount of alcohol consumed! Many bar users and privacy advocates alike have revolted against this technology; while it has good intentions, it presents a large hazard to the ones being scanned as they will then have so much sensitive and personal information floating around.

While this technology is being used in Vancouver and is disliked by the people, the privacy commissioner proposes to allow bars to use the technology, just with a couple of modifications. The commissioner asserts that the ID tag and information collection helps to find drunk drivers, and keeps tabs (no pun intended) on the frequent bar users of Vancouver. Also, without this ID tag, kids are much less likely to be able to try and get an illegal drink at a local bar, since they will not have been issued an ID yet. Forget about faking the ID either as is popular in youth culture; these futuristic super identification cards have a specialized bar code strip hidden on the back and many other safe guards to show that the card is real, and keep imposters from leaking through.

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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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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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Long gone are the days when two warring factions would line up to face each, announce a start, and then enter the hectic fray. Nowadays, the “old war” of guns, blood, and violence is taking a backseat to a new kind of war: a virtual one.

This new modern warfare occurs on the Internet, and the winner isn’t the one with the least dead or the last standing; he is the one with the enemy Intel stored away nice and safe. In order to protect itself, the U.S. will need a vast and in-depth monitoring system, and we might find an extension of the Patriot Act in the works.

Last month, President Obama unveiled this huge new Internet security overhaul. He insists that all civil liberties will be upheld during any surveillance the system will be doing. His senior officials however, think that the complete upholding of all privacy laws will be difficult to do, when scanning every virtual nook and cranny to scout out terrorist activity.

The National Security Agency (NSA) is the branch that is going to spearhead the virtual protection of the U.S. This agency has been in a bit of controversy in the past for supposed privacy invasion. The nation’s security is not a matter to be taken lightly though, and they can justify every action they make. Some have just felt that they have been a bit more invasive than they need to be.

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This world is all about one thing, information. Every time you connect to the Internet, your every action is being watched, logged and saved in databases all over the world. Most of the time, almost always actually, the information is perfectly harmless and can serve to make your surfing a more enjoyable and quicker experience, However, there are times when knowing how to protect your Internet Privacy as well as knowing when and where you are at risk can be an invaluable bit of knowledge.

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Online business, activities and transactions are increasing exponentially each year. That means that a ton of money is flowing through this virtual world, and where there is a lot of money, usually, there is a lot of greed as well. Some people will do anything to make a quick buck, so the average consumer needs to be on guard. Unfortunately, many people are still in the dark when in comes to staying safe online. Everyday, there are more and more people who become victims of internet fraud and scams because they have neglected to take online security seriously.

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