Privacy and the Internet

Last updated on June 26, 1996

Perhaps you think that what you do on the Internet is your business and no one else's. You should abandon the notion but certainly not the ideal. The simple fact is that somewhere someone is always watching. There are a lot of watchers - computers and people - on the Net. To restate a phrase from the pulpit, "He watching over cyberspace slumbers not nor sleeps." Bear that in mind at all times. You don't have to like it but you do have to deal with it, especially since the passage of the Communications Decency Act last year on June 15th - a scant two weeks before Independence Day. You might as well start today. If you'd like more detailed information on privacy on the Internet you should start with a visit to EPIC, the Electronic Privacy Information Center's WWW site.

In the meantime, here are a few Internet privacy dos and dont's:

Don't be too open.

That is to say, don't give anyone your credit card number, your social security number, your telephone number or any other important personal information over the Internet unless you're prepared for the possible consequences. They can be serious - financially and personally. Be wary even of sites that claim to protect your private information from view with encryption algorithms like PGP (Pretty Good Privacy).

Many have already learned by sad experience that it can be foolhardy to broadcast sensitive personal information on a utility as public as the Internet. You wouldn't consider doing it over a cellular telephone so don't do it on the Internet either. You don't want to let anyone know anything that can be used to find out everything there is to know about you. Quite enough of that sort of thing goes on already anyway even without your help.

Don't behave poorly in public.

Of course, you're not going to do this anyway, but a gentle reminder can't hurt. Your right to speak and act as you wish ends somewhere in the middle of that blurry line that separates what's socially acceptable and what's legal from what's not. Everyone has an idea of where and what that line is. Someone else may take a much narrower view than you do. Respect others' views if for no other reason than simple common courtesy. And remember - what you say and do on the Internet can and may be tracked by your Internet service provider, your employer or law enforcement agencies - local, state, national and international - and can be subject to subpœna.

Be exactly and only what you are.

How does one approach this topic delicately? The Internet is increasingly becoming a place for people to meet. As the great Old North State motto says, Esse quam videri - Be rather than seem. That's good advice in any setting. Although the Internet allows many forms of anonymous communication which can foster a tendency to portray ourselves to others in a far kinder light than that in which we may actually view ourselves, at the end of the day we are still what we are. Straighten up and fly right. Eventually you'll find a flock of birds of the same feather on the Internet, or, better yet, a bird fancier. Let's hope, for the sake of the current discussion, that it's not merely a bird watcher.

Don't worry, be happy.

This astounding lack of privacy on the Internet all sounds a bit grim. It's not as bad as some recent films have portrayed it. If you're an average kind of person doing ordinary kinds of things on the Internet, rest assured that no one's interested. Consider the likelihood that out of the millions of Internet users you, alone, have been singled out for some kind of special attention. It's just not highly likely. So surf the Net to your heart's content and have fun while you're doing it.