Effective Writing G6

Think about how many different places you've input personal information on the Internet and you'll quickly realize, they're far too numerous to remember.
Besides social networking sites like Facebook or LinkedIn, varying levels of personal information are solicited across a broad swath of websites including banks, shopping or auction sites, government agencies, employers and any place we register for 'free' services. You've probably also handed over control of your information by routinely clicking the 'I accept' box, without reading the long terms and conditions text about how your information might be used. Or if you did read all the terms you still checked 'yes' to gain the service anyway.

All the personal information we routinely input to websites as well as over the phone or via paper forms still used in a variety of ways like applying for credit cards or confirming product warranties – ends up in electronic databases. Our information has become a valuable commodity, vulnerable to cyber theft and legitimately purchased behind the scenes by companies to pitch their products or services to us. Credit card usage and store 'loyalty' cards track our every purchase ;whether we want them to or not.

With the great technology advances that are driving this new era of Hyperconnectivity , why is it so difficult for individuals to protect the privacy of their electronic information? Why isn't it simple to have personal 'identity agents' that we control to ensure no one sees details of our lives unless we choose to let them?

As the world increasingly becomes more hyperconnected we need to look at the bigger picture and put in place the simplest technologies possible spanning a multitude of situations that are unlike anything we've ever experienced in the past. Simplicity always trumps complexity and that will prove to be essential with identity assertion in the new hyperconnected world.

Therefore, I believe that privacy is very much still relevant, and should never be compromised in today's hyper-connected world.


Rekka

This entry was posted on Friday, August 6, 2010 . You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can skip to the end and leave a response.