Privacy issues have been of major concern from inception of computing especially with the dawn of the internet. Privacy issues always get more and more challenging with time and especially when technology and particularly the digital technology is becoming more and more part of our everyday lives. In this article the author dwells on the evolution of internet privacy from its roots to the next possible destinations.
1. Early-Day Scenario
1. 1 A Simpler Time
The topic of Internet privacy generally was a much simpler one in the development period of the World Wide Web. Since people had fewer sources of information and, thus, fewer means of storing data, worries were not very complex. Digital data was limited in its range and people’s activities were often reduced to elementary web activities.
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2. Forum and Email Age
2. 1 ‘Privacy Awareness’: The Coming of Age
The emergence of the new technologies and more specifically, the e-mail and the Chat-lists has brought an important revolution to the way people communicate. Essentially, people started to share their info on these platforms of SNSs and the issue of ‘internet privacy’ was born. Users were now sharing personal information to a larger population and this brought about new concerns of security of information.
3. A Larger Number of Problems Associated with Privacy
3. 1 The Emergence of the Social Media
Social networks became the tool which changed the approach to sharing the information. With new technology, social networks like Facebook or Twitter brought personal data more into the open and therefore the privacy issue had a new side to it. This brought the privacy of a people’s personal lives to the lime light more than ever before.
3. 2 Profiling and Data mining
When corporate world and institutions started using data mining and profiling,, questions arose regarding privacy. The possibility to comprehend and forecast consumers’ actions based on the received information provoked rather critical issues concerning the use and non-use of personal information.
3. 3 Governmental Control
Internet privacy also raised questions about the position of governments across the world. New and growing authoritarian interferences with the freedom and usage of the internet in countries across the globe and especially surveillance raised concerns on the deterioration of the citizens’ freedom and privacy.
4. Current Issues
4. 1 Security and Encryption
Consequently, it is almost impossible to keep privacy in the contemporary world without warrant security features and encryption. The dramatic development of information threats makes the use of highly effective methods for encrypting an individual’s data absolutely essential.
4. 2 GDPR And Other Legal Provisions
This has been made possible by various forms of Acts and regulation such as the GDPR that offer the consumers some control over their data. But as business evolve and as the technologies of communication advance there are still problems with privacy, even with these laws in place.
4. 3 Hacker and Data Breaches
This is especially true with the increasing rate of data breaches and hacking incidents which are becoming a threat to consumers. Well-publicized hacks have showcased the weakness of such data, which is why people’s information remains at risk to this day.
5. Prospective Situation
5. 1 The Role of Artificial Intelligence (AI)
Analyzing the Privacy concern As for the Privacy problematics AI and machine learning seem to be endowed with the abilities to mitigate the privacy problem together with enhancing the safety of data and the threat detection. But these technologies also come with fresh privacy challenges, one of which We have examples of AI being used in the wrong way such as surveillance as well as data processing.
Privacy implications in relation to how AI is constructing the future is the nature of privacy.
5. 3 Knowledge on Privacy Among the Consumers
Internet privacy in the future will also depend upon the growth in the level of awareness among the consumers. This will apply when there is user awareness of their privacy rights as well as exercising measures towards protection of personal information in future.
Conclusion
The development or rather change of internet privacy is a complex and more of a continuous process. With advancement in technology advanced techniques involved in compromising privacy as well as protection of privacy also advance. In the future, there will be the need to come up with new strategies that are more efficient in handling new and growing issues that relate to the privacy and protection of consumer data.
Key Points
• In the case of the early Internet it has been seen that the issues concerning privacy were much more basic.
• It has become a challenge to achieve privacy in today’s society due to the use of social networks, data mining and increased control by government.
• The management of privacy in the current generation heavily involves use of encryption and security.
• Other developments including Artificial intelligence and the block chain technology, and generally the awareness of the customer also reinforces the privacy protection.
Thus it is possible to better understand these changes in dynamics and work on improving the situation of internet privacy in the future.
