Everything about you: your name, your phone number, your age, your passwords and where you live is your private information. Regardless of who asks, you don't have to provide any information that you don’t want to share and that is your right. Also, you should never give out information to any web site that doesn't have a posted privacy policy. Without such a policy you have no idea what they might do with your information. There are no censors on the Internet although some folks would like to and this is a control issue. Anyone in the world companies, governments, organizations, and individuals can publish material on the Internet. An Internet Service Provider links you to these sites, but it can’t control what is on them. Even if someone calls to complain and whine about the content on a web page. It’s up to individuals to make sure that they behave in a way that’s safe and appropriate. Clear your memory cache after browsing. After you browse the Web, copies of all accessed pages and images are saved on your computer's memory. While these copies make subsequent visits to the same sites faster, the browsing record has grave implications for personal privacy, particularly if you share a computer or use a computer that does not belong to you. Use anonymous remailers. Anonymity is essential to privacy and free speech. It protects writers of controversial material; most simply, it may enable one to publish without a forwarding address. The e-mail technology creates problems for the right to anonymous communication since the sender of a message can be traced back through digital paths. Created to address privacy risks and concerns, "anonymous remailers" presently allow you to send anonymous e-mail messages. Use anonymizers while browsing.From the moment you type in a Web address, a log is kept with information about your visit. Every day, most of us walk down the street without being recognized or tracked. While anonymity is often taken for granted in the physical world, such luxury is not available online. Tools that strip out user information, thus preserving anonymity, have been created; a few are readily available on the net. Written and designed by Robert McLeod |