The Scourge of Internet Personal Data Collection

Abstract

In today's age of exposure, websites and Internet services are collecting personal data-with or without the knowledge or consent of users. Not only does new technology provide an abundance of methods for organizations to gather and store information, but people are also willingly sharing data with increasing frequency, exposing their intimate lives on social media websites such as Facebook, Twitter, You tube, My space and others. Moreover, online data brokers, search engines, data aggregators and many other actors of the web are profiling people for various purposes such as the improvement of marketing through better statistics and an ability to predict consumer behaviour. Other less known reasons include understanding the newest trends in education, gathering people's medical history or observing tendencies in political opinions. People who care about privacy use the Privacy Enhancing Technologies (PETs) to protect their data, even though clearly not sufficiently. Indeed, as soon as information is recorded in a database, it becomes permanently available for analysis. Consequently even the most privacy aware users are not safe from the threat of re-identification. On the other hand, there are many people who are willing to share their personal information, even when fully conscious of the consequences. A claim from the advocates of open access information is that the preservation of privacy should not be an issue, as people seem to be confortable in a world where their tastes, lifestyle or personality are digitized and publicly available. This paper deals with Internet data collection and voluntary information disclosure, with an emphasis on the problems and challenges facing privacy nowadays.