The Internet has become such a huge part of life for me and so many others. Along with all the benefits of using the internet; for example research, sending messages to other connected users, getting information, such as news, maps, airline schedules, and shopping, there is also one ongoing problem with the internet; privacy concerns. Just this past Christmas I planned to shop online for several gifts. I purchased things from reliable stores such as GAP and Foot Locker because I was not concerned with having my credit card information stolen. Then I started searching for a watch for my brother. I found a discount no-name watch store that had a wonderful deal. I was tempted to buy it, but I didn't because I was afraid of releasing my credit card information. I knew that there are many problems with privacy issues, and I didn't want to take a chance. When I saw this topic as a research choice, I jumped on it in hope of educating myself. I found out a lot of information!

about Internet privacy on the Internet and I also found out a lot of information from several different newspaper articles.

When reading several articles, I quickly found out that privacy concerns are an extremel

y common concern. "A confluence of recent events-from hacker threats of credit card extortion, to revelations about the mostly secret tracking practices of Internet advertising firms'-has heightened public concerns about online privacy, experts say, threatening to restrain the World Wide Web's free-wheeling ways." (Nassau and Suffolk, A08)

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From researching privacy issues on the Internet I have learned a lot about things that I never knew existed, for example cookies. From learning about different privacy issues I have formed a strong opinion that there should be no new privacy laws. I feel that when I log onto an Internet website all of my information, except my credit card information and social security number, should be available to the website owner and can be resold to other advertising agencies as they see fit. If I am too ashamed of the sites that I am visiting, or if I don't want others to know that I am visiting a certain site, then I should NOT be visiting that site! Also, I feel that I must mention that I sell lists of names, addresses, and phone numbers for a living, so I would be completely hypocritical to say that I do believe in privacy rights of lists sales and profiling. Right now the government is working on different laws to protect users privacy. I am very curious to see what results wi!

d tall clothing. This tidbit of information probably is stored on a cookie from some past purchase that I made, and now they are t

Some common words found in the essay are:
Cookie Controversy, Suffolk A08, Foot Locker, Internet Internet, Online FBI, Cookie Central, privacy issues, Pornography Ring', credit card, internet privacy, onto internet, card information, Wide Web's, credit card information, Nassau Suffolk, cookie controversy wwwcookiecentralcom/ccstory/cc3htm, hard drive, controversy wwwcookiecentralcom/ccstory/cc3htm, believe privacy, visiting site, id card, nassau suffolk a08,
Approximate Word count = 1032
Approximate Pages = 4 (250 words per page double spaced)