Internet privacy is a big concern for people today. People are worried about having their information stolen when they are online. Many companies use tracking online to monitor their users. Facebook tracks their users to personalize what advertisements they see. Amazon uses tracking to help users find items quicker and accomplish purchasing faster. Tracking is becoming more common and more high tech. A new tracking technique used is canvas fingerprinting. Canvas fingerprinting is a way for users to be tracked without using cookies. Many companies try to regulate tracking and protect internet privacy, but sometimes their techniques do not always stop the tracking. People are concerned with tracking, but they are not so concerned that they will stop using the internet.
Many people think that internet privacy is what to focus on, but Rami Essaid thinks differently. Rami Essaid is the CEO and co-founder of Distil Networks. He believes that internet transparency is something to focus on. Rami Essaid thinks that people should be aware of the “Five W’s” of tracking. The “Five W’s” of tracking are who is tracking, what are they doing with the information collected, where are they tracking, when is the tracking occurring and, why the tracking is taking place.
Rami Essaid believes there are things that can be done to focus more on transparency. The government should set rules on transparency instead of privacy. Companies should provide a report of what information they track about users. Rami Essaid describes benefits of transparency. He says, “transparency would serve as a self-correcting market force, weeding out sites whose practices people aren’t comfortable with.” Transparency would end useless attempts of regulating technologies trying to stop tracking. Also, transparency will cause people to focus on more serious things occurring on the internet. Web bots are attacking web infrastructure and need to be stopped. For example, the Heartbleed bug caused many problems with businesses and financial information. With more focus put on transparency instead of privacy, problems like the Heartbleed bug can be taken care of.
I think Rami Essaid brings up an interesting point. It would be beneficial for internet users to know what information was being tracked about them on certain sites. The “Five W’s” of tracking would give people enough information to decide whether they were comfortable using the site or not. I also disagree with Rami Essaid. I think internet privacy is still something important to focus on. Completely focusing on transparency will not stop people’s information from being stolen which is a major problem today. I think policies around internet privacy and transparency should be improved.
What do you think about this view on transparency and internet privacy?
Source:
http://techcrunch.com/2015/04/26/internet-privacy-is-the-wrong-conversation/
It is interesting to see Rami Essaid’s opinion on Internet Transparency. I think it is long over due, that companies should provide what information they are tracking and whom they re sharing it with. Focusing more attention on Internet Transparency would allow users to take their Internet privacy into their own hands. Certainly in recent light of H.R. 1560 (Protecting Cyber Networks Act) being passed. H.R. 1560 provides an organized way for corporations and federal agencies to share cyber security threat data. This will without a doubt improve cyber security. The data that is being shared also includes users private data. This opens the door for agencies like the NSA to by pass the Electronic Communications Privacy Act and the Wiretap Act and go right to cooperation’s for information if there is a potential threat to bodily harm or death.
http://www.wired.com/2015/04/house-passes-cybersecurity-bill-despite-privacy-protests/