System and Security Having Secure

¶ … System and Security Having secure information on the internet can be highly difficult to attain. Even many sites that insist they are careful with a person's data end up being hacked, losing information, or allowing too much data about a person to 'slip through the cracks' and disappear somewhere in cyber space. There is more identity theft now than ever before, and many of the thieves are stealing the information right off of the internet.

Because of that, companies still have to do more to protect the people who shop with them. How secure the information (overall) should be, though, and who makes that decision is something that has to be answered - despite the fact that it is a complex question which many people may have trouble agreeing on when it is their own, personal data on the line vs. other information. Right now, companies that sell goods and services on the internet make decisions about how secure their customers' data actually is.

Some of them follow specific practices for safety and security, and others do not. A customer using an ebusiness has to decide if he or she feels safe providing information to that company. That information can potentially stay in the company's database forever, so making sure that the data is protected is vital - either that or the data should be purged after a specific period of time (DiBattiste, 2009).

Purging the data is one way to help protect customers who do business online, but there is still a vulnerable time between the collection of the data and the purging of it at a later date. It is during that time that the data can be compromised, and it is during that time that customers are most at risk. Many of them probably do not realize this, especially if they trust the company to protect their personal and financial information.

Ultimately, it seems as though the customer should decide how safe he or she wants his or her information to be (Cranor, 2008). That would make the most sense, because the information belongs to that person. He or she should be the one to determine what is done with it. Unfortunately, that is not the way the internet works. The customer does not have control of what is done with his or her information once it is handed over to a company.

The argument could be made that the customer should simply not do business on the internet, but even people who avoid the internet completely often appear on it because of databases that collect information such as phone numbers and addresses. In other words, if it is a matter of public record, it can be placed on the internet for everyone to find.

There is very little that can be done about it, and databases really are not obligated to remove that information - although some will do so if a person makes a specific request. Because so much information appears online, the problem becomes not how to keep the information off of the internet, but how to protect the information on the internet and keep it secure (DiBattiste, 2009).

There are government regulations in some countries about what is allowed online, and as such many sites that are used in some countries are blocked in others. That is unfortunate for people who travel a great deal, because they have limited access in various parts of the world. If they need to access a site for business purposes, they may not be able to do so, and that can lead to frustration and even lost contracts and opportunities (Miller, 2005).

With that being the case, it would seem as though there should be a way to get around these restrictions. If people start avoiding restrictions, though, where does that end? At what point does it become unacceptable and dangerous, and at what point does it jeopardize the privacy, safety, and security of other people who have their information online? The people who own the information (i.e.

The people whose information is being collected) should be the ones to control how secure that information is in the sense of who can see it and access it. Because their names, dates of birth, addresses, phone numbers, and other information belongs only to them, they should be able to determine whether they want that information to be available online (Miller, 2005). With public records laws, that is not the case.

So, should the law be changed to protect people who do not want their information made public? What about people who need to protect their identity because of stalking, identity theft, celebrity status, or other factors? The argument could be made that these people should not receive special treatment, but they are clearly more vulnerable to problems than the average person on the street who most people do not know and who does not have any enemies or reasons to believe that others would be 'out to get them.' Currently, the government decides how secure information is when that information is part of public record (DiBattiste, 2009).

For information that is voluntarily given, such as to an internet company with which one is doing business, the company decides how secure that information is and what is done with it. The consumer has very little say in what happens to that information, even if the company insists that it is safe.