For essay 4, you will compose an essay with a 1,500 – 1,800-word count that contains two secondary sources and a Works Cited page. The essay is an argumentation essay and thus you will need to hav

Tam Tran

Instructor Acevedo

English 61682

15 May 2019

Internet Privacy

The Internet provides one of the most convenient tools for consumers to search, share, communicate, study and so on. It has been used widely and has become a vital part of everyday life by mankind. Even though the Internet is a social place, users tend to keep it private. Today, as companies try to provide clients advertisements based on their interests, unawareness of being collected personal data from the companies is uncontrolled. Consumers were tracked surreptitiously without any approval. This has become a hot controversy because big internet companies like Google or Facebook involve the extensive information of personal data therefore individual privacy turns out under threat. Consumers need to be aware of what they are going to post or sign up online and companies should have permission before using their client’s data wrongly.

It is reasonable for users to fear for their privacy when personal data can be retrieved up to six months by the Internet Service Provider (ISP) or anyone who knows to do so. Customers have rights to protect their privacy as long as it is not against the law. Nicholas remarked, “We disclose details not only about our jobs, hobbies, families, politics, and health but also about our secrets, fantasies, even our peccadilloes” (Nicholas 529). It is true that users use the Internet as a convenient tool to maintain active contact with social life, yet, they also use it as a diary and prefer to keep it secret. For instance, there is a horrifying incident that fifteen years old girl decided to commit suicide because her nude pictures were leaked online. There are no words to describe how heartbreaking it is, even though those pictures were deleted before spreading out. It becomes a serious obsession to users today when personal data is unprotected and might fall into wrong hands in someway. Furthermore, by using the Internet as a tool to remember important things such as passwords, credit card or social security numbers, all the user’s information can be disclosing. Hackers can steal or break into the user’s mailbox, and then sell that information to black markets for making fake IDs or blackmailing back to users. Hence, web surfers need to be really careful before signing up for something online.

Most of the online surfers have no idea of the masses of their data is being sold to different companies that want to reach them. Customer data has become a major priority for companies to make money. Companies regularly capture a large amount of data on their consumer’s activities and then analyze those to create targeted ads or even sell it to a third party with a huge amount of money in return. In Facebook Is Using You, Nicholas proved that Facebook made $3.2 billion in advertising, yet, Google made more than ten times as much (Nicholas 542). For internet companies, having these data sources available for purchase is immensely valuable, so their demand from collecting the customers’ information is increasing more and more. This also shows that customers have no right to limit the boundaries who they want to share with, and their information was used to trade to multiple internet companies without approval. It becomes dangerous because clients’ privacy is under threat. “Privacy is psychological important because it allows people to maintain feelings of self-control, of relaxing away from others and of personal autonomy” (Goffman). Therefore, when one’s privacy is unsecured, it will bring to many unsettling consequences.

The more users’ data are dug out, the easier those information against them. For example, an individual wants to apply for a job to a company. He/ she could have been denied