Privacy & Security

1. Introduction – Explain the importance of the topics and how they impact our world. Why did you pick them? Privacy and security are topics of importance to keep the public aware of how to protect their personal information from fraudulent activities. Privacy is important because it makes sure that your information is not available to anyone without your permission (Goriawala, 2013). The way privacy impacts our world is that our privacy can be invaded by advanced technology and authorities. Such as, according to recent news where the National Security Agency (NSA) in the United States allowed U.S. intelligence to listen to calls that were made from the German Chancellor Angela Merkel mobile telephone (Press, 2013). A close partner to privacy is security. Security is the way your information is protected from cyber criminals (Goriawala, 2013). Our security is compromised by what we share on social media and other sites such as passwords and emails. This impacts our world because the free flow of information from social media and websites made 8.1 million people a victim of identity theft and 1.6 million households have their bank accounts compromised. This risks our world’s protection from online hackers but the main impact on our world is the number one security threat and that is us ourselves. Depending on how strong your security is, it will decrease the chances of having your private information accessed. Therefore, the way the impact our world is that what we put on the internet is always going to stay on the net and is remain public.

2. Explain how the topics relate to each other. The way privacy and security are relevant is that when there is no privacy; people will turn more and more to security. They both are related to technology and how we share our information online and ways online users get target. An example of this would be that when we post posts on social media sites, hackers are able to see the information we share by having online trackers. Depending on how much and to what degree of information we share effects our security through many ways. According to a study done by visa, consumer’s post additional pieces of information online that could be used to target an online account. Such as: Close to 50% of respondents shared their birthdate, 29% or respondents shared their phone number, 14% shared their mother’s maiden name, 20% or respondents provided their home address on social media and 7% of Americans have shared their Social Security Number (Visa Security 2013, 2013). It is our responsibility to ensure that we build our safety by putting our guards up and being cautious as to what we are being asked and how legitimate the website is. Privacy and security provide information on what steps to take to increase our safety online and what to keep confidential so our information does not get into the wrong hands. Therefore, posting high risk information allows online criminals access to your private information which they are able to use to verify themselves as you for a new credit card or other criminal activities only because we have shared that information online without thinking about the consequences of it.

3. Explain how the concepts complement each other, if they do not complement each other, explain why not? The way these concepts complement each other is that the main focus for both of these topics is to increase protection and security for online users. In order to protect themselves, people will change their privacy settings to limit who can see their information in means to increase their security. If your private information is not kept confidential enough, then it risks your security. Privacy falls under the category of security through what is posted online. For example, if one of your Facebook friends posts on social media that they are in Mexico and won’t be back for another week, it allows an opportunity for a burglar to break in. If your privacy settings are not set properly, which majority of the time they aren’t due to the confusion of Facebook setting, that message or status is visible to the whole world. Therefore, security is a necessary tool to build privacy.

4. How do the topics oppose each other? If they do not oppose, explain why not? Privacy and security oppose each other in a few ways. Privacy is the amount of personal data that is published through the internet. For example, the amount of personal information you place online can be monitored by anyone. Different age groups have different thoughts about their privacy online. For example, teenagers do no express a high level of concern about having third-parties access their data (MARY MADDEN, 2013). Security is the confidentiality, availability and integrity of data to hackers and criminals online. Depending on what your security settings are and how protected your accounts are, we prevent ways to allow malware and viruses access to our information. Therefore that’s how they both oppose each other.

5. Conclusion – Restate the topics and how they impact each other on a big picture In conclusion, privacy and security both have their own positives and negatives. No matter how much you personalize and secure the information you put online, you are still putting yourself at risk of identity theft or other risks by putting information online. Once something is online, it is there permanently and just another chance or opportunity for a hacker to access it no matter how strong your security settings are. There is no answer on how to keep safe online. In order to protect you, it’s highly recommended to find the right balance between security and convenience. Therefore, to create less of an impact on the world negatively, it’s important to keep confidentiality and not advertise ourselves out there to let companies and advertisers get to us through malware.

6. Bibliography Goriawala, S. (2013, 01 29). Are Security and Privacy the same thing? Retrieved from Quora: https://www.quora.com/Are-Security-and-Privacy-the-same-thing MARY MADDEN, A. L. (2013, 05 21). Teens, Social Media, and Privacy. Retrieved from Pew Research Center: http://www.pewinternet.org/2013/05/21/teens-social-media-and-privacy/ Otortocion. (2012, 08 20). Online Safety Inforgrpahic: You are not safe online! Retrieved from Antlantic Training: http://www.atlantictraining.com/blog/online-safety-infographic-you-are-not-safe-online/ Press, T. A. (2013, 10 27). NSA denies Barack Obama personally authorized wiretap on German Chancellor Angela Merkel in 2010. Retrieved from National Post: http://news.nationalpost.com/news/nsa-denies-barack-obama-personally-authorized-wiretap-on-german-chancellor-angela-merkel-in-2010 Visa Security 2013. (2013, 08). Fraud News. Retrieved from Visa: http://www.visasecuritysense.com/en_US/fraud-news.jsp#OMG2muchinfo