Essay Privacy: Identity Theft and Privacy Fears

Submitted By chambinho
Words: 365
Pages: 2

Online Privacy According to the article, “Online privacy fears are real”, written by Bob Sullivan, we are not safe on internet. Credit card numbers are sold online for $ 1.00 a piece; our identities are sold and traded like options on Chicago Board of Trade. Many companies are interested on the personal data provided by consumers, sometimes without knowing that your information has been shared. Many companies use this data to analyze what are the customer’s preferences, then they can advertize according to their preferences and location. Most of the consumers try to share as little as possible. Sometimes people try to provide wrong information in websites such as, names, address, phone number, emails, etc, thinking that they can be safe online. However, companies and hacker always find away to re-identify the data to find what they want to know. No one is safe online. Even the specialists don’t have control. “Super cyber-sleuth Richard Smith, now chief technical officer at the non-profit Privacy Foundation”, was a victim of identity theft. The criminals opened credit cards using his information on the application. Privacy concerns don’t always happen from criminal activity. Ian Oxman, was stunned earlier this year how easily he was able to locate the previous owner of a used car he had just purchased. Oxman was able to look up the original title owner through an online database on the state of Illinois’ Web site. He called the woman just to check if the car was involved in any accident then