Blog Post #4: Online Privacy

When we think of privacy, we immediately think of, closed doors, closed shades, and locks, but do these ideas apply in the internet world as well as reality and do they have the same effect. The answer is yes they do. We can effectively protect our identities online by being smart and varying our passwords and usernames. Yet on a daily basis we see people giving out information to different social networking sites and online sellers who can easily use that to their advantage. According to Steve Lohr, “people often dole out all kinds of personal information on the Internet that allows such identifying data to be deduced.” This is a plane and simple fact, we as Internet users are sometimes not as safe as we should be. We constantly give out personal information on websites that are not secured or encrypted. So the question is, as an Internet user is your privacy completely gone? The answer is, as an Internet user your privacy and safety is up to you, as long as you are smart you can keep your life private and safe.

In recent years with the development of online file sharing software and illegal downloading, many musicians have been losing money on music sales. The conflict between copyright laws and the digital age, are solely in violation because of the ease and accessibility in which we the internet user can get our music. Tim Arango tells in a recent article in the New York Times, that on Tuesday October 26th a federal judge in New York City issued an injunction that will shut down Limewire, one of the biggest file sharing services available in the U.S. Limewire was founded by Mark Gorton in 2000. Gorton who was once a successful Wall Street trader seems to be headed in the direction of sites like Napster. Conflict between file sharing sites and music companies will continue until some sort of mediation is enforced.

http://www.nytimes.com/2010/10/27/technology/27limewire.html?_r=1&scp=1&sq=illegal%20music%20downloading&st=cse