Week 5 EOC: Privacy? Is there such a thing as online privacy now a days?

Online privacy is becoming a bigger issue by the day. With all of our personal information on the web and easily accessible for the world to find just by using Google, how do we really know that everything we have on our personal computers aren’t at risk for the world to view? Cloud computing is one thing that has raised many issues. “The Electronic Privacy Information has asked the Federal Trade Commission to investigate whether Google's "cloud computing" services, including the Gmail e-mail service, Google Docs and its online photo-sharing service, Picasa, is adequately protecting users' privacy. The FTC is looking at the privacy and security issues tied to cloud computing — where documents and other data are stored on Web-based servers, in the hands of third parties, as opposed to being on a user's hard drive. Cloud computing is considered the future of data storage for many. "However, the storage of data on remote computers may also raise privacy and security concerns for consumers," wrote FTC attorney David C. Vladeck in a December letter to the commission."For example, the ability of cloud computing services to collect and centrally store increasing amounts of consumer data, combined with the ease with which such centrally stored data may be shared with others, create a risk that larger amounts of data may be used by entities in ways not originally intended or understood by consumers," he said.” (http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/35427715/ns/technology_and_science-security/) Mobile Me is the Apple version of cloud computing and is used my many Apple customers that have multiple devices made by the popular brand. As of yet the same issues that have been raised by Google have not occurred with Mobile Me. Digitized healthcare records are also a thing of concern for many Americans. “According to the October 2009 Ponemon report, Electronic Health Information at Risk: A Study of IT Practitioners, 80 percent of healthcare organizations surveyed had experienced at least one incident of lost or stolen electronic health information in the past year - and four percent had more than five patient data breaches. More than two-thirds of these healthcare organizations had already digitized at least a quarter of their patient records and a third had digitized more than half.” (http://www.imakenews.com/accushred/e_article001584145.cfm?x=b11,0,w) Our children may also be putting themselves and us in danger of having private information stolen. “Iconix Brand Group, Inc. will pay a $250,000 civil penalty to settle Federal Trade Commission charges that it violated the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act (COPPA) and the FTC’s COPPA Rule by knowingly collecting, using, or disclosing personal information from children online without first obtaining their parents’ permission.” (http://privacyregulation.com/?p=377)