Internet privacy is the set of rights and protections that define an individual’s control over personal information (PI) shared online. It encompasses a variety of measures, including informed consent, encryption, password management, and cybersecurity threats.
The PI a person shares online is vulnerable to many different types of abuse, such as spammers and hackers who seek to exploit it for commercial gain or commit fraud or theft. Other risks include being targeted for phishing scams, and having personal information used in blackmail or to commit crimes like stalking, doxing and other forms of harassment or bullying.
A common risk is that a web server or search engine can track a device, which can then be used to build a profile of an individual online. While some web-oriented marketing-research organizations may utilize this practice legitimately, it becomes a privacy issue when data matching identifies the profile with the PI of an individual, such as through cookies or fingerprinting tools.
Another major concern is that a person’s information online is easily searchable and often permanent, making it easy for cyber criminals to compile a full profile of an individual’s identity and use it for financial gain or for other illicit purposes. A person’s PI can be found in public records, social media posts, online reviews, photos and other content, as well as through doxing and other forms of cyber bullying and harassment. This is one reason why a person should be careful about posting anything controversial on the Internet.