Software Tracking Data: From Tapes to Cookies - Research Paper

Introduction

Software for tracking data has been increasing as the world adopts more digital means to perform their daily activities with cookies and web bugs that log what people search for on the internet, what they search for each time they access the internet services, and what they do once they get access. The government agencies in the past used traditional ways such as listening to talks on earphones and transcribing tapes, which was easily realizable. The method was tedious and labor-intensive as they had to target and select one suspect after another. However, the current government spies do not have to sit and transcribe data for hours. Instead, it has adopted the new way of spying the internet, which scoops up all types of information that it comes across even that which is incomprehensible. The internet has destroyed the privacy of many people worldwide as they use online services for the daily accomplishment of their activities because whether they are making updates to their social media platforms or searching for information on the internet, it has become more comfortable for the government to track millions of their citizens as they leave visible trails anytime they are online.

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Cox, Howard W. "StingRay Technology and Reasonable Expectations of Privacy in the Internet of Everything." Federalist Soc'y Rev. 17 (2016): 1. https://s3.amazonaws.com/fedsoc-cms-public/library/doclib/20160331_CoxStingRay.pdf

People, especially Americans, are more attached to the electronic devices they own as they expect them to be readily available all the time so that they can seamlessly and continuously connect using the internet. Law enforcement is taking advantage of this chance by developing tools that help them use the technology to find criminals through the devices they carry. The government is using stingray devices to access data on personal cell phones that automatically broadcast data for identification with a little interface. Despite the Fourth Amendment arguing for concepts of reasonable privacy expectations, the United States has tended unreasonably accessing people's data on the internet, which makes privacy hard to maintain.

The government uses a device called a StingRay to identify specific information that is broadcasted by cell phone as it usually operates. For cell phones to establish and maintain connectivity, they provide cell towers and service providers with a lot of information, with most of it being unique to certain devices. If a device makes or receives a call, it provides personal information such as the phone number registered to the device, the numbers dialed, which makes the connectivity data available to law enforcement firms when they need it.

Technology users have no expectation of any privacy in the connectivity data that is generated by the cell phones they use as they automatically connect to carriers and devices for easy communication. When Smartphones establish internet connectivity, automatic sharing of data occurs between the device and the service providers. Installation of applications in Smartphones also causes an automatic connection to the device from app providers such as Google and Android providing real-time information on the location of the user.

Sun, Wencheng, et al. "Security and privacy in the medical internet of things: a review." Security and Communication Networks 2018 (2018). http://downloads.hindawi.com/journals/scn/2018/5978636.pdf

The internet creates insecure networks due to the devices that people use. The devices rely on wireless networks like WiFi that are heavily vulnerable to certain intrusions like unauthorized access of the routers, man-in-the-middle attacks, and spoofing. The denial of service attacks as well as traffic injections destroys individual privacy with most wireless networks that are provided for free having negative effects on the users. Whether the individuals are updating their social media or searching for information every time they are online, they leave virtual trails that are easily availed by software for data tracking and cookies.

The internet also makes it easier for hackers to access personal information of individuals such as their birth dates, phone numbers, and security numbers, which make it simpler for them to hack their cards and banks. The internet exposes them to identity theft and fraud because companies know more about the individuals' data making it easier for data hacks to occur.

Yang, Yuchen, et al. "A survey on security and privacy issues in Internet-of-Things." IEEE Internet of Things Journal 4.5 (2017): 1250-1258. https://www.researchgate.net/profile/Longfei_Wu3/publication/316173391_A_Survey_on_Security_and_Privacy_Issues_in_Internet-of-Things/links/5a256ec10f7e9b71dd087b26/A-Survey-on-Security-and-Privacy-Issues-in-Internet-of-Things.pdf

The internet is everywhere in people's daily lives, and it is used at home, in the hospitals, deployed in various control settings, and several other functions. However, with all these benefits, the internet can also become a huge risk of loss of privacy as well as other security issues. The internet can create information about the behaviors of individuals, analyze it, and take specific actions that pose a threat to their privacy and protection of security. Most of the Internet of Things devices run complex software and face similar security risks as the general-purpose computers do. When they are connected to the internet, they are easily affected by computer viruses such as the Trojan virus.

The manufacturers of various internet sites failed to make an implementation of effective security systems in the devices used and creating a rise in the number of unsecured devices that connect to the internet. Security and privacy is a huge issue in different devices that use the internet, posing concerns on online privacy for the users. These devices are reported to collect the personal information of the users, such as their names and addresses, and also monitor all their activities online. The devices also can view what users are doing in their houses, especially in Smart TVs, laptops, and Smartphones.

When using the Internet of Things, users face different concerns that make them care when submitting data that is sensitive to the collection servers. The internet also creates easy environments for malware to easily be used in creating powerful botnets that make it simpler to access the computers and create delayed processes, deleting files, and add more malware that can access the user's general information making it accessible to the general public.

Chesney, Bobby, and Danielle Citron. "Deep fakes: A looming challenge for privacy, democracy, and national security." Calif. L. Rev. 107 (2019): 1753. https://pdfs.semanticscholar.org/226c/bdf05977491c2633472eab8c1d4727ee2fa6.pdf

The internet makes it possible for different harms to occur, especially in the form of deep fakes that make individuals and businesses face several exploitations, personal sabotages. Intimidation hence creates risks to democracy and national security. Falsified imagery has been on the rise as the internet becomes more prominent and gains many users. The fakes put many individuals on the wrong side of the law, as technology is easily used to distort the original in highly realistic and hard to detect ways. Technologies that are used in altering images, audios, and videos are rapidly growing.

Altered objects quickly travel using the internet and can reach millions of people in no time completely changing the meaning that the original audio, image, or video was meant to spread. Impersonation has been on the rise, with some internet users digitally impersonating celebrities and using such images for malicious activities. Digital impersonation is easily convincing and can destroy people's privacy as constraints cause information and secrecy leaks as theft and mistaken disclosure increases as the more impersonation is realized on the internet. The ability to create deep fakes has completely changed public attention as it is no longer in the secure hands of trusted media companies.

The internet has allowed individuals that peddle with people's fakes to reach massive audiences quickly. Content after finding its way easily to online audiences circulates online as well as through traditional media which increases the spread of negative information. Hoaxes and rumors, most of which are false spread ten times faster than real stories do because negative information is very tempting to share and sticks longer. The internet, especially the use of social media platforms, has made it easier for the sharing of content that mostly shows beliefs rather than facts. This trend is a threat to people's privacy as it easily causes the decay of truth and access to the privacy of people that would otherwise not want it accessed.

Wang, Xiang, et al. "Expression preserved face privacy protection based on multi-mode discriminant analysis." CMC Comput. Mater. Contin 57.1 (2018): 107-121.

As a proliferation of video surveillance and the internet that is inexpensive increases, many cameras are applied to various public places. They are used to record and store huge amounts of image data. Image data in certain scenes threatens human privacy as most of the images are recorded, processed, and stored against their wish. With the increasing development of the internet, the private information used in surveillance has high chances of being leaked to the public, causing concern as to whether individual information stored is protected.

The rapid surveillance observed in many countries has caused a hidden danger to the privacy of many people, especially those in the data mining and computer vision fields. Most people who use the internet believe that the laws set in surveillance are insufficient in the protection of their privacy in different online sites. Mass surveillance awareness has increased among the people as it follows different tactics that oppose them when they arise. Digital spying has a complex nature, and it is interlinked to a different set of rights, which are imperative.

Counter-Arguments

Buchi, Moritz, Natascha Just, and Michael Latzer. "Caring is not enough: the importance of Internet skills for online privacy protection." Information, Communication & Society 20.8 (2017): 1261-1278. https://www.mediachange.ch/media/pdf/publications/Buchi_Just_Latzer_2016_Privacy_iCS_Postprint_.pdf

The internet is a key player in the protection of privacy, and different users have certain skills that enable them to reduce risks of loss of privacy. Online activities depend on revelations of personal data as disclosure of information on the internet helps to simplify transactions, strengthen social ties between individuals, personalize services, and have control over their data. The internet helps to restrict the amount of information that the users can make available to the general public. The internet has different privacy settings that allow people to use the internet to hide some of their information when taking part in any type of online transaction. Individuals require digital skills to ensure user privacy protection so that anyone on the same network cannot be able to snoop on their traffic. The use of a VPN has also helped users to adopt the use of the internet to protect privacy in the form of policies that help to track online activities and choose what should be visible to other people.

Refutation

The internet may allow users to protect their privacy by tracking their online activities and choosing what they want others to see. Still, hackers can easily access such data and make it public. The information they are sure that they protect using the VPNs and the privacy settings can be easily accessed by users with technical skills that allow them to bypass the security and access informati...