I read the article http://www.privacyrights.org/fs/fs18-cyb.htm and it's a great link that explains in an organized manner the privacy violations of the internet and what information is being shared and how it is shared. I had an inkling of how open and transparent the internet is with your personal information, however, this really illustrated how badly rampant information sharing is. It's really pretty scary.
For instance, on some websites, there is a transparent graphic they place in the HTML that automatically tracks your IP address as well as other information from your computer. Websites also track where you've been on the internet and your search engines are also gathering information about you and sharing it. It tracks how long you were on a web page and what you searched for. There is no one really watching! There are measures you can take as a user.... by being careful, deleting cookies, enabling privacy options on your browsers, etc. But the adage that nothing is forever deleted on the internet is so true.
There are Flash cookies, code that is more persistent than regular cookies in that it can't be erased even when the user deletes cookies. Some well known companies use these and have been taken to court because of it (Facebook, etc.) because the usage of Flash cookies was not disclosed in their privacy user agreement.
A friend pointed me to a website where everyone's information was recorded without them knowing it...their name, age range, income, a picture of their house from satellite, and how much that house costs, etc. The Internet is such a Wild West of frontiers, there is hardly any accountability at all. So hopefully in the future, stricter laws can be placed to protect children, our information, from prying eyes as we get more interconnected.
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