Blog 10: Internet Privacy

It is somewhat disturbing to think about how freely I give out my personal information. I haven't thought more than 5 seconds about it before typing in my credit card information or even social security number to sites like USF connect, FAFSA, or internet shopping sites. Now that I think about it, the nature of the information I give out should influence what I am comfortable giving out. For example, I feel comfortable giving my credit card number to ebay because I trust that my information will be used only for purposes that I give permission for. With FAFSA or USF, I am comfortable giving my social security mostly because I have no other option, but also, these organizations should be more trustworthy and have a higher likelyhood of being repremanded if information was leaked. I would not give out my personal information to a website that hosted an organization that I knew nothing about or that did not look very professional. Networking websites are an example of an organization that I limit my information. I do not put my phone number or address on any webpages. The difference between myspace and ebay is that on myspace, giving out my address and phone number will not be(hopefully) released to the public. On myspace anyone can click on my page and see my address if I choose to give it out. I also chose not to get a gmail account because I do not want to recieve advertisements related to the contents of my email. It creeps me out not to mention I don't want advertisements. This topic is probably something that we should all think about more when giving out information about ourselves, but overlook because of convenience.