First part of my Final Paper: So far

Deception on the Internet

            Whether or not we know it, or whether or not we like it, deception is everywhere and it affects every one of us who use the internet. We commonly use websites like Google and Facebook, considering them great, free tools for researching and keeping in touch with friends and family. In fact, a lot of people go out of their way on the internet to protect their privacy on websites that obviously collect important, personal information, but they still use the seemingly harmless websites like Facebook and Google because they don't seem threatening. The unfortunate truth is that these tools do, in fact, come at a cost. "If you're not paying for something, you're not the customer; you're the product being sold" (Pariser, 2011). What is it that is being sold that is so important? Our personal information right down to our credit information and what search items you entered into Google last night; Enough information to cause an individual to lose their job, their credibility, their reputation, and potentially everything you own.

            Many internet users are very cautious when it comes to putting their personal information online. This most commonly refers to account information or social security numbers, but there is much less care put toward protecting a name or interest. In an article by Adam N. Joinson, Ulf-Dietrich Reips, Tom Buchanan, and Carina B. Paine Schofield, they stated, " A recent poll by UPIZogby (2007) found that 85% of respondents said that the privacy of their personal

information was important to them as consumers. The Oxford Internet Institute survey

(Dutton & Helsper, 2007) found that 70% of U.K. Internet users agreed or

strongly agreed with the statement that “people who go on the Internet put their privacy

at risk,” and 84% (up from 66% in 2005) agreed that “personal information is being

kept somewhere without my knowledge.”" With so many people being concerned with their privacy, one might think that those people are sparing themselves from having their information taken, but as the final line of the quote stated, " personal information is being

kept somewhere without my knowledge.”

            There is now a company out there called Spokeo. I hadn't heard of it until I read Lori Andrew's book I Know Who You Are and I Saw What You Did. In her book, she talks about this company and several others like it that gather and store information on everyone they possibly can. This information can be a bit more personal than what movie you went to see last week, however. When I looked up my name on this site, it gave me several location options for my name and there I saw my parent's home address along with one of the options. Upon clicking on this person, I was shocked to find that it had my cell phone number, a map of where my house was, my gender and approximate age, an estimated value of the property my parents live on and apparently had plenty more information to share if I was willing to pay less than $4.00 a month to get their full service. I didn't pay to see what other information they had on me, but the fact that they had what they did already out on the table for anyone to see along with the fact they had MORE, scared me.