Internet

1. What type of information do you think Web sites would track about their users?
Internet is widely use among all the people in the world. It is essential to know the information tracked from the Web sites about their users. Among the information tracked include IP address, location of user, date or time users are visiting, every page visited by users,   port that are accessing from the site through and the personal information of users (picture, password, email address, credit card/account bank number).   The most common way of tracking information is through the use of cookies, data logging and even search engine. Most server software will automatically record the browsing habits of users, whereby these servers use cookies that are left inside the computer to generate a unique serial number to identify every users and keeping tracks of the number of times the user visit a website. The same way goes with data logging. Each time a user login to a service, a lot of personal information and IP address is recorded and identified. For example, logging in service with the same provider such as Gmail will automatically identify user for other Google services. Furthermore search engine retain user information such as location and the time spent using the search engine which even recognise the interest of user. The query term entered will be recorded for the convenience of the users for the next search. Other information such as computer name, browser type, network owner, and domain registration will be tracked passively once users connected to most servers.
2. Is it ethical to gather information about all users?
The issue of web privacy depends on individuals, website type, and purpose also on how information collected is used. Therefore it is necessary for the community to develop a common set of ethics since interactions are done in a virtual community where users cannot see or meet physically. Hence, the user himself must build a “relationship” with the website he...