Privacy on the Internet
Ever feel like you are being watched? How about having the feeling like some one is following you home from school? Well that is what it will be like if users do not have the privacy on the Internet they deserve. EPIC (Electronic Privacy Information Center), a advocacy group that has been fighting the Clinton Administration for tougher online consumer protection laws, and other privacy protection agencies have formed to protect the rights and privileges of the Internet user. With the U.S. Government, EPIC has had to step in and help small companies and Internet users with their own privacy problems, hackers getting into their systems and ruining the networks, and crackers stealing and decrypting private information. They have also helped with trying to stop the "IPv6", an every day occurring problem from eventually taking over the already used widely IP addressing system. Intel also has had a feud with the government about privacy issues. When their new chip came out, the Pentium III it had skeptic problems with its serial number feature. That is why I strongly agree with EPIC and what they are representing, privacy on the Internet. Say you were on the Internet surfing around, would you wa
nt every site that you have visited to know who you are and almost every thing about you? No. That is why Intel had to disable their serial number feature in the new Pentium III. With this feature, each site on the Internet that you have visited could use this number to look you up and see who you are and almost every thing about you. Before released Intel told the U.S. Senate that they had disabled this function on every chip, but when these chips where out on the market for a while, programming companies found a way to go back in and enable this function without the computer user knowing it. So when the Senate heard this, Intel had yet another feud with its little problem. When the dust all settled Intel was to put this now option into the BIOS of every computer that had the PIII (Pentium III) installed on them. When the user opened up the BIOS there was now an option to either enable or disable the serial number on the chip. But since not many people know how to get into the BIOS of a computer it is hard for this option to be accessed. And once again Intel was back in the courts trying to explain their reason for yet another problem. The government finally ruled that when a new PIII chip is to be installed into a computer the serial number option is to automatically be turned off. Yes, Intel had some very good reasons for this "security feature" but the public did not think so. They tried to argue that if a chip was ever to be stolen they could track them down when the thief accessed the Internet (PC Computing 105). But how often do you hear of computer chips being stolen? Not at all. So why did Intel want to fight for this feature so much? They say because of the security over the widely growing Internet (107), but what it seems like to me and the public is mostly an invasion of the users privacy when companies get to greedy and want to know every thing about you, and your life. If it weren't for EPIC, and the government getting involved in privacy issues, Intel would have its way on what ever they want, and we would have internet sites looking us up every day breaking our personal privacy. In conclusion, with our privacy at risk we the people need to become more aware of what is at stake. Our privacy on the Internet, or privacy in our lives. It is now the public's turn to speak up. We need to make our voices heard on these big privacy issues so we don't end up losing every thing that this country has worked
Some common words found in the essay are:
Baker ITEF, PC Computing, Internet User, Pentium III, Provider IP, Government EPIC, Clinton Administration, Yes Intel, Privacy Internet, Internet Internet, privacy internet, ip address, private information, internet sites, pentium iii, internet user, secure line, privacy issues, computer identifier, bios computer,
Approximate Word count = 1653
Approximate Pages = 7 (250 words per page double spaced)
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