Parenting and Children's Internet Privacy

The internet is full of resources that children and youth are exposed to every day. There are new ways of doing things, finding friends, games, and a lot more. All these are available to them at home, 24 hours a day, 7 days a week. The different sites are so appealing that they become so engrossed that it results in mechanical exploration. They do not understand that the virtual world can be harmful to them just like the real world.

Parents can take an active role in maintaining the online privacy of their children. Not all parents realize that web sites collect personal information from children. Information gathering can be done in various ways. There are those that ask children to register, join a club or enter a contest, fill out a questionnaire, and others. Web sites can put them altogether to make a personal profile; enough to identify personal preferences, especially commercial products. Children then become targets of advertisements, or they end up on a customer list that is sold to third parties. This is the first step to losing their privacy.

There is no assurance that children will not be exposed to harm in the virtual world. Even the best technology-based solutions are not fail-safe because a new technology overrules the older one. The best way to guard children against privacy invasion can only be provided by parents. They must be actively involved in their children’s online activities. Parents should make efforts to spend time with their children and ask them to show their online activities.

Parents should not take for granted the privacy policy statements of the sites that their children explore. One of the important parts is what information is collected and how it is used. A good site is one that provides an option on whether the child’s information can be collected or not. There are sites that use the seal of approval from a trusted authority. This can be easily found on the first page of the privacy policy. This seal is given only to sites that agree to be audited and to give dispute resolution services.

Parents and guardians should teach children never to give out information that can identify them. There are sites that ask for family information, home address, phone number, school name, family photos, etc. Passwords must never be given to anyone, even to those that they know. They should stay away from the ones that threaten, suggest, demean, or those that make them uneasy.

If children have started using social networking, they should remember that people online may be pretending to be another person. It is possible that a 13-year old girl is actually a 30-year old man. Parents can be effective guardians of their children’s online privacy if they themselves are knowledgeable. They can start by making an extra effort to learn to navigate the internet themselves.

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Fine Tuning the FBI Rules

Some changes in the rules will give F.B.I. agents more latitude to search the lives of those people who attract their attention. Once enforced, they can use these new powers to search databases or go through household trash. A watch team can also be used to look into the lives of people who behave unusually. These changes are part of the bureau’s new manual called the Domestic Investigation and Operations Guide.

With the revised rules, F.B.I. agents can act with greater degree of “freedom” to foresee any criminal or terrorist activity. Their authority is enhanced, empowering them to investigate suspicious people. However, there are some unfavorable reactions from some individuals, especially those who advocate privacy. One of them said that the decrease of restrictions on agents’ powers was rather unwise. There is a possibility that agents might use intrusive techniques on innocent people. There were abuses that occurred in the past and these can still occur. Problems involving “national security letters” that allowed agents to obtain information without a court order were once controversial.

To support the F.B.I.’s action, a spokesperson said that problems involving national security letters have previously been fixed and would not recur. There was a clarification regarding it, stating that changes in the bureau’s manual do not need any consent. Adequate studies were made concerning the risks and the benefits that such changes will bring bout. The counsel further stated that there were no changes made but only fine tuning.

The “assessment” category was one of the areas that needed fine tuning, considered as the lowest category of investigations. The new rule allows agents to scrutinize persons and organizations even for just a feeling of doubt. The old rule required that agents needed to have an inquiry before conducting a search for information about a person. The new rule does not require them to submit a report of the results of the process. An ACLU lawyer said that the new changes cannot detect those who have personal purposes to have easier access to databases.

A bureau spokesperson explained that F.B.I.’s purpose for the new changes is to simplify the process. It would be cumbersome for agents to oblige them to open formal inquiries every time they do a quick check. Agents have to present an assessment report before using the information they have gathered from the search.

There are other changes that give additional leeway to loosen the grip on the hands of agents that were tied for a long time. These changes are aimed at granting them wider latitude to perform searches. These can be done even without a firm reason to affirm that there is suspicious activity. The increase of privacy bounds is a topic that creates different reactions from critics and the public.

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Putting an End to Medical Record Breaches?

Current incidents of medical record breaches are concrete proof that it is impossible to set up a perfect system of keeping this data safe. Thieves were able to steal the records of patients, staff members, contractors, and suppliers while under the custody of a record management company. Just last March 2011, nearly two million owners of personal information managed by a provider were informed that their records were missing. These are only examples of patients’ health records being compromised. These breaches against health records pose danger to the privacy of hundreds of millions of people.

To preserve their confidentiality, the patient’s medical records should be kept secure and private. These documents hold sensitive, personal information that tells much about the owner. Because of this, those who are found to commit breaches should be held liable. Just recently, a general hospital in the U.S. was fined $1 million for lapses in protecting personal information. Paper records of 192 employees of a company were left by a hospital employee on a subway train. How should these issues be handled?

One state spokesperson said that there is not enough care on the part of the health care industry. An examination was conducted by the HHS on the status of security measures at health care facilities across the U.S. Results showed that the system that houses the patient’s records is at risk. The investigations done at seven large hospitals in different states also revealed an alarming reality. Unencrypted personal data of patients was stored on computers that cannot guarantee access by authorized users only.

Some health care experts are not convinced that the enforcement of HIPAA alone can sufficiently address the problem of data breaches. A former national health coordinator of health information technology said that HIPAA is already outdated. The law is no longer applicable in the manner in which data passes through many hands.

Today, individual health care records pass through at least thirty people or organizations. To make HIPAA consistently effective, it must be updated to suit the present state of information technology. It would be if a new law would be passed - one that supports or strengthens the existing ones.

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Ensuring Privacy and Security of Health Records

There is a possibility of endangering the privacy and security of people’s health records. This possibility comes along with the breaches of medical privacy. Records show that nearly 300 hospitals, doctors and insurance companies have been involved here. Proponents of shifting to electronic health care records might have second thoughts because of these lapses.

After the shift, it is expected that medical errors will be lowered, costs will be reduced, and the quality of outcomes will be improved. All efforts are being poured in to strengthen the effect of the conversion. This is done by the government in order to maximize the enforcement of existing rules about medical privacy and security.

Health care experts have shared their apprehensions regarding this issue. They are in doubt whether the enforcement of existing laws alone would be enough. Some of them are in favor of implementing stronger laws. As an example, improperly obtaining information should be considered a criminal act. On the user’s side, they are afraid that they could not get health insurance once their private information is opened for public viewing.

Clarification as to the consequences of breaches has not yet been given. Before anything else, the public should be aware of what will happen to the offenders. Only after this has been done can the public give their well-informed decision on the issue. If ever there are baseless fears and apprehensions, these will be erased at once.

Another consideration is how the safety and security of medical health records will be maintained. The Department of Health and Human Services has recently exposed a possible glitch in the system. The area of protecting patients’ records is the most vulnerable. One thing that the agency found out during its inspection is that patients’ personal information is not encrypted. It added that intruders can easily tamper with this data because this is stored on unrestricted computers.

Some government officials themselves made a suggestion if ever the plan for conversion will be implemented. The health care industry should first strive to achieve and maintain the needed level of vigilance in keeping private information safe. There are available tools that can readily enable one’s access to personal information and to connect names and addresses to other relevant data. This is dangerous. The right security system should be in place, otherwise people would just be amazed because their personal information has become public property.

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On Google's Second Attack - Who is to Blame?

Google has once again suffered an attack, and this time, it is largely in its email service. Hundreds of Gmail subscribers have reported an intrusion to their accounts, stealing their passwords and monitoring their emails. The victimized accounts belong to high profile persons like some senior U.S. government officials, Chinese political activists, some Asian countries’ officials, journalists and military personnel.

Last year Google had a similar problem and pointed to China as the origin of the attack. It resulted in a rift in the relationship between the company and the alleged perpetrator. Soon after the incident, Google transferred its Chinese search engine base to Hong Kong. Compared with the first attack, this one may not be as sophisticated as the first in terms of technology used, but the victims this time were prominent people. Using phishing, the perpetrators tricked their victims to capture the email passwords of users.

There were indications that the Google attack was masterfully coordinated. The victims were not just picked at random as can be deduced from their profiles. One explanation is that someone has “entered” into one email account and used its contacts in order to victimize some other targeted users.

Google issued recommendations to its users about how they can prevent such attacks. As an added security measure, users should go through a stricter verification process. Doing so would ensure better protection. The company has developed a two-step verification process before a user can access his or her email account.

Chinese government spokespersons reacted to Google’s statement that is pointing the blame at them. According to the country’s foreign ministry, the government had always denounced any criminal activities that may compromise the internet as a useful tool. It further stood up to say that China, too, is not spared from similar cyber attacks, specifically hacking. If there is something that needs to be done, it is to put China as one of the victims and not as a suspect.

There are some circumstances pointing to Jinan, located in the eastern part of China, as the origin of the attack. One of the seven Chinese military command centers is found here. It is also the site of the Lanxiang Vocational School, which is a school with military support. The investigations on the attacks conducted last year pointed to the same school as the origin. Some observers said, however, that it is impossible to directly put the blame on China. Today’s internet technology is already borderless, meaning there are no clear boundaries between places. As such, there are several ways for people to be “present” in different locations while doing this kind of privacy invasion.

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