Online privacy a false sense of security [606065]

Online privacy – a false sense of security

Saying that you do not care about online privacy because you have nothing to hide, is like saying
that you do not care about freedom of speech because you have nothing to say.
Have you ever tried to change the privacy settings of your personal profile from the default
settings on an online social network? Why you should be more careful about your personal
information that you share online? In this document I‟m going to talk about how your personal
information is collected, what is GDPR and what it provides , terms and conditions that some of
us skip them , and how your online privacy is not that private.
First of all, personal data is any information that relates to an identified or identifiable living
individual. Different pieces of information, which collected together can lead to the identification
of a particular person, also constitute personal data. Internet privacy is a subset of the larger
world of data privacy that c overs the collection, use, and secure storage of personal information
generally. Internet privacy is concerned primarily with how personal information is exposed over
the Web, through tracking, data collection, data sharing, and cybersecurity threats.
Also , companies are hired to watch what websites people visit, and then use the information, for
instance by sending advertising based on one's web browsing history. There are many ways in
which people can divulge their personal information, for example by the use of "social media"
and by sending bank and credit card information to various websites. Moreover, directly
observed behavior , such as browsing logs, search queries, or contents of the Facebook profile
can be automatically processed to infer potentially m ore intrusive details about an individual,
such as sexual orientation, political and religious views, race, substance use, intelligence, and
personality.
Fortunately , European Parliament and Council of the European Union created the Regulation on
the protec tion of natural persons with regard to the processing of personal data and on the free
movement of such data. The General Data Protection Regulation (“GDPR”) is a legal
framework that requires businesses to protect the personal data and privacy of Europea n Union
(EU) citizens for transactions that occur within EU member states.
The purpose of the GDPR is to provide a set of standardized data protection laws across all the
member countries. This should make it easier for EU citizens to understand how their data is
being used, and also raise any complaints, even if they are not in the country where its located.
The article 1 of GDPR is entitled Subject -matter and objectives and it envisage the followings :
„This Regulation lays down rules relating to the pro tection of natural persons with regard to the
processing of personal data and rules relating to the free movement of personal data.

This Regulation protects fundamental rights and freedoms of natural persons and in particular
their right to the protection of personal data.
The free movement of personal data within the Union shall be neither restricted nor prohibited
for reasons connected with the protection of natural persons with regard to t he processing of
personal data.‟
As a result of this implementatio n, citizens have the benefit of some rights that the GDPR
guarantee, for instance: the right to be informed; the right to access; the right to object; the right
to erasure and blocking; the right to rectify; the right to file a complaint; the right to dama ges;
and the right to data portability.
Secondly, we all know that before we start to use a new website or when we subscribe to
something or when we download a new app from the appstore , we run into terms and conditions
or privacy policy . Moreover , we all know that because of the large amount of information or
because of the formal language we agree with them even though we didn‟t take a look at what
they contain. Not long ago, BBC addressed a very interesting topic and things consumers don't
want to do. On BBC's top list of those things, reading terms and conditions ranked as number
two. This is a bad practice for numerous reasons. But what terms and conditions really are and
why is important to read them before agreement , also what kind of informa tion is collected by
this „privacy policy‟ ?
So, the terms and conditions are g eneral and special arrangements, provisions, requirements,
rules, specifications, and standards that form an integral pa rt of an agreement or contract.
A Terms and Conditions act as a legally binding contract between provider and users . This is the
agreement that sets the rules and guidelines that users must agree to and follow in order to use
and access the website or the mobile app .
When you agree to terms and conditions, you are basically agreeing to all sorts of things. In
order to know exactly what you have agreed to, you have to read and to make sure you
understand everything in the terms and conditions.
A privacy policy is a statement or a legal document (in privacy law) t hat discloses some or all of
the ways a party gathers, uses, discloses, and manages a customer or client's data. Most of the
companies are collecting the following data: personal identification information (Name, email
address, phone number, etc.) , and the y are telling you how they will use this information, for
example : e-mail you with special offers on other products and services they think you might like
by the information they have collected.
When GDPR was implanted they t hought that this Regulation is going to change the way you use
the Internet. But I think that what they expected didn‟t happened. Why do I say that? Because,
even though we have this clauses that „guarantee‟ our personal data and our personal information

we are not really secured . Furth ermore, I can say that the online environment is like a spider web
according to the data collection system . To be more precise, when you visit a website, the site
can have your location based on the IP address of your ISP (Internet Service Provider). The ISP
has logs of your internet connections and browsing data which they sell to the highest bidder.
The websites you visit usually have analytic that logs your browsing pattern; which includes the
search term you used to visit the site, the browser you are usi ng, your IP, your operating system,
your location, your time, the outgoing links you are clicking, the duration you spent on the site,
when was your last visit. The social media widget track the contents you are reading and the
people y ou are sharing it with . The dynamic ads know the search term or the incoming link you
used to visit the site and the contents you are reading and then gives you ads based on this
information.
As addition to this, even if you think that the incognito mode is a good way to surf on the
Internet if you don't want your data to be collected, you are wrong. Before you start searching,
you should take a look at what incognito mode provides. Chrome says that they won‟t save some
information, but your activity will be still visible for your internet service provider or for the
sites that you are accessing.
In the same way, there has been a movie based on real event. The name of this movie is
Snowden. Disillusioned with the intelligence community, top contractor , Edward Snowden left
his job at t he National Security Agency. He found out that a virtual mountain of data was
assembled to track all forms of digital communication , not just from foreign governments and
terrorist groups, but from ordinary Americans. When Snowden de cided to leak that classified
information, he bec ame a traitor to some, a hero to others and a fugitive from the law.
Now, after all the things I talked about, don‟t you wonder how can you browse the internet
without being tracked? Well, you can hi de your IP address with a web proxy ; connect to a VPN ;
use a privacy -minded web browser or search the web with a secure search engine like
DuckDuckGo, which promises to block advertising trackers and keep your search history private
and, most imp ortantly , you must a void public Wi -Fi networks like in hotels and restaurants.
All the things considered, having in mind the GDPR Regulation, the terms and conditions act
and the privacy policy, from my personal standpoint , this is an indirectly way of collecting
information about us, the users of the Internet. As I said in the beginning, even though they are
collecting information from different sources that we had accessed, they can use them, just like a
puzzle, in order to individualize a person and catch out some personal data. And that‟s why the
online privacy is a false sens e of security .

Bibliography
https://ec.europa.eu/info/law/law -topic/data -protection/reform/what -personal -data_en
https://www.google.com/amp/s/europa.eu/youreurope/citizens/con sumers/internet -telecoms/data –
protection -online -privacy/indexamp_en.htm
https://gdpr -info.eu/issues/personal -data/
https://www.slashgeek.net/2012/06/15/how -to-be-completely -anonymous -online/
https://eur -lex.europa.eu/legal –
content/EN/TXT/?uri=uriserv:OJ.L_.2016.119.01.0001.01.ENG&toc=OJ:L:2016:119:TOC
https://m.imdb.com/title/tt3774114/plotsummary
https://youtu.be/unLCKMh6LH4

Nume: Simoiu Maria -Mihaela
Grupa: 318
Facultatea de Drept, Universitatea din Bucuresti