Guarding Privacy on the Internet

Undoubtedly, the government, business houses and employers have a legitimate need to collect data and to monitor people, but their practices often threaten an individual's privacy. Since a vast amount of data can be collected on the Internet, and due to its global ramifications, the FTC had identified ‘core’ principles of privacy which are widely accepted by leading countries. With the European Directive in force from 1998, ‘trust seals’ and ‘government regulations’ are the two leading forces pushing for more privacy disclosures. The need for companies to develop and put into place good privacy policies and/or statements has become more crucial than ever. Privacy legislation prevalent in the US, the EU, Canada, Japan and Australia is summarized in this article. Privacy laws vary throughout the globe but, unfortunately, the topic has turned out to be the subject of legal contention between the EU and the US. Among the companies given high marks by privacy advocates for making data protection a priority are Dell, IBM, Intel, Microsoft, Procter & Gamble, Time Warmer and Verizon. Currently, the only way consumers can stop the collection of their personal data is to ‘opt-out’ or configure the browser to reject ‘cookies’. We have briefly examined various methods (like Carnivore program, W3C Platform for Privacy Preferences (P3P), Encryption, etc.) used by the corporate world. Today, more advanced technological safeguards are needed. For corporations that collect and use personal information, ignoring privacy legislative and regulatory warning signs can prove to be a costly mistake.