Online privacy issues
NPR did a story on how today’s teens view their privacy online. Mostly, teens aren’t concerned about their privacy online. They feel that most of what they put online isn’t something secret and private. They’ve gone the last couple years, almost growing up with YouTube and MySpace. To them it’s not a big deal to tell the world about themselves and have everyone look at it.
They do feel that monitoring their phone calls would be a big invasion of privacy. It will be interesting in another 10 years to see how those teens view these issues.
As a web developer, privacy can be a big deal. We have worked with companies that have a lot of very private information for websites. Members lists and information, records of business, etc. Privacy can definitely be something a company has to highly consider before finishing a database web app. Just a couple years ago the most pressing privacy concern on the web was making sure you had a posted privacy policy to tell people you wouldn’t sell their email address. That seems like a minor concern now.
There area many aspects to consider, including laws and company policy. Basically, if you have to have some personal information on the web, you need to do what you can to ensure it stays private and secure. At Mind Architecture, we’ve been building many web sites that need security and privacy addressed. Large companies that allow PO orders. We may need the ordering companies account and billing information online. We need to ensure not only is the website password protected and secure, but all adjoining factors. The server needs to be secured. The web server application needs to be secured. The database with all the actual information definitely needs secured. It doesn’t do any good to have a web application where only one piece is secured as that won’t uphold privacy very well.
The bottom line is, when you are creating an internet application, you need to consider the information and data to go on the website and how that could impact someone and their privacy. Most companies don’t want to be involved with the courts because they put up some info that shouldn’t have been on the web.