Security and privacy online has attracted great attention in recent years. A recent survey revealed that 67% people are either somewhat concerned or very concerned regarding the privacy of their personal medical records. What’s more is that 80% of people surveyed said they are very concerned about identity theft or fraud.
Currently, medical professional are having trouble keeping health information secure. Even companies such as Google and Microsoft now have personal health record services where users can track medical history online. Earlier this semester Google came to campus and gave a technical talk about Google Health (health.google.com). It wasn't long before students in the audience raised their hand asking how secure would this site be and how would Google prevent the information from being leaked.
Speaking of leaks, the WikiLeaks documents revealed that U.S. officials have been asked to start collecting "fingerprints, facial images, DNA and iris scans" of foreigners and other persons of interest.
Interesting fact: The state of California has been storing DNA data of newborns for the past 30 years without parental knowledge.
The rise of DNA identification is not the only new form of spying. U.S. federal agents are now being encouraged to connect to others using social networks in order to spy on them. We must begin to create rules on the sharing of DNA, the ethics of using DNA sequences and the ethics of using information on social networking sites.
Another highly relevant privacy issue revolves around the Transportation Security Administration (TSA) body scanners. People are outraged that TSA officials are being hired to scan naked body images of passengers going through security. They feel that these scanners reveal to much information. However, TSA is taking the gradually-adapting approach of having technologies replace humans. They think this will eliminate the privacy issues being raised. While this is a good start, there are still many kinks that must be worked out. The algorithms behind such software, many times won’t know what they’re looking for if they’ve never seen it. Also, many dangerous items can be disguised to look like harmless objects. Therefore, it has been suggested that this algorithm be used with existing technologies such as hazardous chemical detection.
Some people admit that we just have to “say goodbye to privacy”, if we haven’t done so already. With mobile applications that share location (such as GroupOn, Foursquare and Facebook), they must make the user believe that the value received from using the service outweighs any perceived risks from updating and sharing their location.
A computer science professor and expert in security at the University of Maryland, interviewed HERE, thinks that people should not express anger over their "private" information being leaked over the web because they check a box agreeing to the terms of the website. Therefore the website can do what they want with the information from this point forward. He also feels that privacy is a loosely defined term. Even he feels that we don't have enough privacy as we think we do. But to "function in society, we really don't have any choice". I think that this is the case because if you want to be an active citizen engaging in new technologies, you're eventually going to have to sign up for a social networking account. Or, you might have to buy something online, thus risking your credit information. Or, it may be more convenient to pay bills online, also risking credit information. Just a basic search for information online allows companies to track your every move and advertise to you based on your "private" searches.
Even the president and leaders of the United States have unofficially declared our times as a cyber security era. Millions of people will soon be hired to oversee the protection of our computer systems, especially our government and military systems. Ever since this new initiative was launched, millions of dollars have been invested into cyber security research and training. The University of Maryland is aggressively hiring for this field and will announce its new cyber security center, MC2 on Thursday, December 9th.
Cyber security is not only a prevalent field in the United States. Even the U.K. is training people for positions in this field. Moreover, credit card companies around the world such as in Africa are investing in protecting their customers’ online identities. It’s all one big snowball effect as the problem becomes larger and larger. Without a high level of security, credit card fraud occurs and decreases customer trust in the company. This, in turn, affects usage rates and these usage rates affect profit. If all credit card companies adopted high levels of privacy and security for their customers, it could potentially help the global economy.
Therefore, as the use of technology increases daily, so our actual privacy decreases, although our perceived privacy may increase. Expert opinions, actions of our nation's leader and concerns of every day citizens lead me to believe so. What do you think?
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