Privacy, Second Class

[RuffRyders]

[b]Privacy, Second Class[/b]
[i]Whether through ignorance or innocence, computer users are losing their privacy to both companies and crooks.[/i]

[size=1]By Keith Ferrell[/size]

The spyware education initiative launched last week by Dell Inc. and the Internet Education Foundation has got its work cut out for it. Private information is being grabbed at record rates by both crooks and corporations. And the public is relatively unaware of the extent of the problems.

According to a recent report from the Boston-based Customer Research Group, telecommunications companies routinely share personal information gathered without permission from visitors to their Web sites. This, despite the fact that 70 percent of site visitors would not provide that information if they thought their privacy would be violated.

The key is in whether or not the visitors think their privacy is at risk. Most don't. According to a study released this week by America Online Inc. and the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA), three quarters of computer users consider themselves safe from online threats, including spyware and other privacy violations. Yet 80 percent of the respondents' computers contained spyware infections.

Their computers boasted a staggering number of infections. While the average spyware count was 93 components per machine, one contained an astonishing 1,059 pieces of spyware. Ninety percent of the study's respondents did not understand spyware's potential for stealing their private information.

The gap between privacy concerns and privacy violations is growing larger—much of it the consequence of false confidence when visiting sites or user ignorance about how to protect confidentiality online. The result is the same: loss of privacy at best, loss of sensitive financial data at worst.

Responding to increasing numbers of spyware-related tech-support calls, Dell announced last week that it would add anti-spyware and firewall tools to the software bundled with new computers. Hewlett-Packard likewise added tools—including Symantec's Norton Personal Firewall—to its consumer and small-business computers.

Which is fine for owners of new computers, but most users aren't using brand-new machines. That AOL/NCSA study was based on only 329 users out of a universe of tens of millions.

That's a lot of computers, a lot of privacy being violated, and a lot of users in need of education.

[url=\"http://www.techweb.com/tech/security/51200578\"][Source][/url]