Category: Internet Privacy

Introduction

The world is rapidly experiencing changes in modes of communication. These rapid changes have been brought about by the invention and use of computers and, more specifically, the internet. The use of the internet amongst young people has increased to an alarming rate. There is a need to formulate laws that will govern the content of materials being accessed by these young people. With the increased use of the internet, many people have become worried about their privacy when using the internet. This is because there are other individuals who have managed to access accounts or confidential information from others. As a result, scholars and other stakeholders, like the government security agencies, have tried to formulate laws that will curb this menace to no success. This has mainly been attributed to the inability to locate the faces behind these illegal activities. For example, it is possible for an individual in Australia to hack into a website belonging to an American company. Therefore, it becomes extremely difficult to bring these culprits to justice.

Literature review on web privacy

A number of people have ventilated on this issue, although some of the recommendations given are proving to be unworkable. For example, according to Garfinkel (2002), web privacy relates to the individuals prerogative. This means that it touches on the storage, as well as providing personal information of oneself through the internet. He has observed that many people, and especially the youth, have a tendency to share their information with others without knowing the real danger they are exposing themselves to. In addition, he has noted that the government and other stakeholders are not in a position to control or regulate the use of the internet in their area. However, he contends that the government can only make sure that its people have limited access to certain websites in an attempt to control and regulate web privacy. For instance, in the recent Arab uprising in the Middle East and North Africa, the governments tried as much as they could to block social sites such as Facebook and Twitter because they were used by the protesters to influence others.

On the other hand, Hamilton (2002) has argued that web privacy is today proving to be out of control. These are the same sentiments shared by Garfinkel (2002) because people tampering with other individuals content on the web cannot be tracked easily. He says that the governments should come together and establish a special group of its security who will communicate with others in case they arrest suspected computer hackers. In addition, he has observed that people who post their personal information on the web sites should make sure that adequate measures have been put in place to make sure that no one can tamper with such information. He has claimed that many victims of this kind of crime have claimed that their personal information on the website had not been properly secured. He says that if people embrace these kind of measures, the chances of having a secure and safe internet is possible. This opinion is shared by Connolly (2004), who has further stated that some of those individuals tasked with ensuring that personal information is safe on the internet to have been accused of sabotaging their clients by taking advantage of being the ones using their ability to access and maintain such information. As a result, he says that clients should be the ones having the passwords used in protecting the information other than the specialists who helped in posting such information on the web site.

According to Delta (2010), in order to maintain privacy, individuals are supposed to select which type of personal information should be made available to a particular web site. In addition, he has advised that people need to be informed about the profile information that is of importance to a particular web site as well. This is because it will allow such people to choose who may use this information, for what purposes, and under what circumstances. This may go a step further to include issues such as having the sole right to publish and update records and to withdraw usage permissions. In addition, information stored locally on a users machine may be modified in a way that it will be kept safe from unauthorized usage by other people having access to the web site.

Whats happening now?

In the 21^st century, the number of people using the internet has increased rapidly. On the same note, the number of web sites that allow people to interact has gone up at an alarming rate. For example, Facebook and Twitter have become the most commonly visited sites, especially by young people in their twenties. What these sites do is to allow people to post their personal information so that they can be used by others as they search them to become their friends on Facebook in particular. There is also an option in these sites where people have a chance to poke others whom they have never met. Therefore, these people, in many instances, are strangers.

Once the victim accepts the request, he or she has a chance of viewing the personal information in another persons profile. It has been observed that such strange individuals may decide to copy some of the private information and share it with their friends who may be as well unknown to the victim. Such may include personal pictures. As a result, individual privacy on the web will have been affected. In addition, there have been instances where pictures of certain prominent personalities have been edited. As a result, this has made such people bear a negative reputation, especially from those not well versed with such kind of picture editing technology. Therefore, it is important to know and keep track of the people who are in a position to access an individuals profile. This, as earlier stated, can only be possible by accepting requests from people known. This is a very good and effective way of keeping imposters at bay. Hence the web privacy will not have been compromised.

Recent abuses and improvements

On social sites such as Facebook, for instance, many people have been forbidden or suspended from continuing use of their accounts after many people reported receiving friend requests from people they do not know. As a result, the suspended people may have learned a big lesson and therefore, may only send such friendship requests to people they know and are sure that they, in turn, know them. Due to increased use of celebrities names, some of the web site owners have forbidden the use of such names so that they can protect the privacy of such individuals in the society and the world at large.

Web site policies on privacy protections

According to Hamilton (2002), many companies have privacy policies that are aimed at protecting their internet users and also increasing their confidence as they post their personal information on the web site. He says that this is the most effective and efficient way of making sure that a web site receives more people at any one given point. He contends that once a consumer is guaranteed that the information provided will not be disclosed to a third party, then he or she is likely to post a lot of personal information that he or she feels is relevant to the requirements of such a web site.

This paper has looked at the privacy policy given by the 24/7 Real Media Company. According to the companys privacy policy, they do not ask for the online users personally identifiable information, such as the names of individuals and their addresses. The companys main concern is its customers to abide by the applicable laws that govern online privacy and encourage them to publish privacy policies that inform others about how the information they are gathering is being utilized. The company requires their partner web sites that are part of the Global Web Alliance to inform users about their privacy and information collection practices via their privacy policies, including whether or not the web site is using their technology. They also advise their customers on how they can delete the information they have provided to the companys website. This company has further encouraged its customers to frequently read the privacy policies of the other websites that they visit to understand issues relating to online privacy.

Current proposals for government regulations

Although web privacy has for over the years, proved to be an enormous task for the government and other stakeholders, there have been attempts to try and regulate web privacy in many countries. According to Delta (2010), the United States of America does not have a firm law that governs online privacy. On the other hand, he has observed that Canada, Germany, France, and the United Kingdom legislatures have passed stiff laws on privacy laws. He says that in the United States of America, the Federal Trade Commission is usually tasked with ensuring peoples privacy is observed. However, he has noted that this commission can take action only if privacy-violating action is deemed unfair to the victim. He has said that the main issue in trying to formulate federal privacy legislation was to try and curb the spread of this vice that has continued to affect many people in the world today. In addition, he claims that privacy laws are long overdue because there are some companies that have been gathering information from people and using such information to make money at the expense of such people.

Conclusion

Although the internet has brought more good than bad in our society today, there is a need to address its disadvantages so that it can continue being a useful tool in the life of mankind. Therefore, it is important to make sure that those people who infringe on other individual privacy are brought to justice and accorded stiff penalties. This move will go a long way in deterring others who want to engage in such activities in

the future.

Reference List

Connolly, J., 2004. Law of internet security and privacy. New York: Aspen Publishers, Inc.

Delta, G., 2010. Law of the Internet, Volume 1. New York: Aspen Publishers, Inc.

Garfinkel, S., 2002. Web security, privacy and commerce. New York: OReilly Media, Inc.

Hamilton, T., 2002. The privacy payoff: how successful businesses build customer trust. Philadelphia: McGraw- Hill Ryerson.

Privacy is the right of an individual or a group to make themselves secluded and express themselves and their information selectively. aThe concept of digital privacy can be best described as the protection of the information of private citizens who use digital mediums. It is the freedom or right to determining how private information is stored and used. It directs to the desire of people to control or have some form of influence over their data. Digital privacy is the encompassing of information, communication and individual privacy mainly stored on digital platforms. Communication privacy means that message and communication can be accessible only by the sender and the intended receptions.

In the context of the modern world, almost every daily activity in our daily life leaves a digital footprint in some random spots. From GPS tracking and location, cardless payments, smartphone activities, social media platforms, and others thousands of applications allow a seamless digital footprint of our activities about what we are doing, where we are doing and with whom we do.

If we consider Australia, Citizens care about their personal privacy a lot. They use the services provided are aware of the value in terms of personal digital information. Due to a busy lifestyle, they spend less time worrying about their personal information being used. They totally rely on the government and internet service providers for protection and right the use of their personal information. They are not concerned about their personal information being stored and sold to someone else. This is due to the fact that people believe that the information and their activities are useless.

Why is privacy such a big thing to discuss? if we consider an internet flight ticket booking site, the smart algorithm analysis our interest. The information like destination place, time of travel, time of the ear are collected. The cookies are stored. Next time when we visit the site again the price goes up significantly. This is how they store our data for their benefits.

Now if we talk about supermarket giants like Coles and Woolworths’s loyalty programs, our purchase data is collected every time we swipe the cards. Each swipe of customers’ card shows information about the items purchased, quantities and most purchases good. Through this big data, third party business can use that and come up with a new kind of similar products. For those third party companies, these data from Woolworths and coles have a high value. So, everyone must be aware that those kinds of information exchanges. The consumers must read the privacy policy act when they sign up with these kinds of programs.

During the last couple of decades, there has been a huge development in the technical field. Generation X was the population that was not aware of any technical advancement. Generation Y had a bit of knowledge, but the revolution came in the age of generation Z. People became aware and grew up with the technology. In today’s time, society can be classified into two categories as technology natives and immigrants.

Social media stores huge information from its users. Online stores analysis our habits and interests and use that data for various purposes like advertising. We share almost everything happening in our daily life in those media. From breakfast, we eat, place we travel, a friend we spend time with and a lot more.

Talking about Facebook, it stores our friends and family details. We share single events and stories with people near to us. We share their personal information. I.e place we work, place, we live, the place we study. From these activities that we post on social media a lot of information can be collected and analysis user patterns. For example, researchers at the University of Cambridge successfully used facebook likes to identify not only personality but gender, political affiliation, sexual orientation, and religious affiliation. This can be scary when used in an unfair manner.

Now google is home to all of those things, they keep track of places we live, work, study, and our visit. They know how many times you have visited certain websites and what time we too, also personal preferences and habits.

Based on research conducted on internet users, individuals with profiles on social networking websites have a higher risk-taking attitude in comparison to those who do not; also greater risk-taking attitude exists among men than women.

The digital rights and governance project at the University of Sydney conducted a survey of 1600 Australians about their digital rights, the need for Governance and the responsibilities of social media platforms. The following are the finding of the survey.

Australian personal and professional lives are being transformed by digital disruption, while lawmakers, technology elites and corporate Boards fail to keep up. Based on the survey 67% of citizens can step to protect online privacy but 38% only to feel in control. 80% of the city doesn’t want to know what information of theirs is being used by whom, while 26% believe it is acceptable for employers to look at a public social media posts, only 20% say it is acceptable for them to do so when the posts are tagged as private. These numbers show the Australians are seriously concerned about their digital privacy.

The Australian privacy act 1988, defines personal information as “information or an opinion, whether true or not, and whether recorded in a material form or not, about an identified individual or an individual who is reasonably identifiable.”

Most of the Australian say online privacy is beyond their control. They don’t think that they are the one who has access to control the flow of their information.

“In Australia, no jurisdiction has enshrined in legislation a cause of action for invasion of privacy; however, the door to the development of such off causes of action at common law has been left open by the high court in Australian Broadcasting Corporation v Lenah Game Meats Pty Ltd (Lenah Game Meats)”

The failure of Australian (FOI) laws to live up to their promise and to the experience in other jurisdictions significantly focus the government’s decision-making process.

The level of privacy is different based on personality. Privacy is always a personal preference. No one wants an unauthorized personal to know about their life. Personality with high ranks like military generals, politicians, actors are concerned for wide majority of people. Time and again we hear the news that the social media account of these personalities been hacked, or some government secrets are leaked. Protections of their information is very essential. Not only these personalities are essential, everyone’s privacy should be respected and protected.

It is the government’s responsibility to protect a citizen’s information. The government must provide protection of citizens’ information because citizens put their trust in the government blindly. Privacy acts must be updated regularly because technology is evolving day by day. The information and communication sectors are evolving on a daily basis and the government must be updated with the changes. The government should also ensure that internet service providers are not collecting user data and selling to the third party. It has to make rules regarding storing and using customer data for a better experience of the user.

In China, Chinese citizens are satisfied with their information protection laws because their government keeps track of everything about them and doesn’t disclose to any organization.

An individual should also have some sort of responsibility for the protection of their own information. They must be aware of privacy terms and conditions before signing up for any sites or platforms. An individual can protect themselves by applying some safety habits like visiting the trusted sites, using antivirus software, downloading authentic and secure contents from a trusted supplier, turning site cookies off for unwanted and unsafe sites and virtual machines.

Comparing Australian government privacy acts with the Europian country act, there are some differences. The directive outlines of non-EU countries must adopt privacy legislation of equal restriction and to be allowed for exchanging personal data with only EU countries. Furthermore, companies in non-EU countries must adopt privacy legislation of equal restriction as provided in a Directive. In order to do business with companies established in EU countries. The general data protection Regulation is the recognition of a “right to be forgotten”, it requires any group that collects data on individuals to delete the data related to that individual upon the request. The regulation was influenced by the aforementioned European Convention on Human Rights.

The council of Europe, addressed privacy protection regarding the internet in the year 1998 when it published, “Draft guidelines for the protection of individuals with regard to the collection and processing of personal data on the information highway, which may be incorporated in or annexed to Code of Conduct.”

Every country has its individual privacy-related acts and law. Protection of citizens privacy is their primary responsibility. There should be standard protocol for sharing information with the authorized authority. Citizen information should only be used for citizen’s benefit and they must be aware of it.

References

1. Australian Broadcasting Corporation V Leneh Game meats Pty Ltd [2001] HCA 63, 208 CLR] 199 (15 November 2001) (Australia)
2. Paterson, Moira — “Freedom of Information and Privacy in Australia: Government and Information Access in the Modern State” [2005] PrivLawpr 20; (2005) 11(7) Privacy Law and Policy Reporter 203.
3. Krasnova, H., Gunthar, O., Spiekermann, S et al. IDIS (2009) 2: 39-63 https://doi.org/10.1007/s12394-0090019-1
4. Fogal, Nehmad “Internet social network communities: Risk-taking, trust, and Privacy concerns”, Volume 25, Issue 1, January 2009, Pages 153-160, Computer in Human Behavior
5. France, Robert “Privacy in the digital age: a review of information privacy research in the information system”, Volume 35 Issue 4, December 2011 Pages 1017-1042, Society for Information Management and the Management Information System Research Centre Minneapolis, MN, USA
6. Al Bareeq, J.M., Aal, A.A, Abozenah, H., Alhourani, D., Alsowaidi, A., Corbally, M., Fadel, E., Sharif, O., Skowronski, S. and Tierney, E. (2017) Research and Ethics for the Medical Profession, Partridge Publishing Singapore.
7. Beecher, MD And Henry, K. (2017) Ethics and clinical research. In Ethics and Medical Decision-Making (pp. 3-9) New York: Routledge.

A discussion about privacy and its definition is as old as mankind. Everything started with the protection of individual’s body and house, which continuously evolved into controlling individual’s personal information. History proves that evolution and also makes clear evidence of an undoubtedly strong relationship between privacy and the technology development. This is the reason why I chose to discuss, analyse and compare two pretty similar, but also notably different mass media. One of which is print, the oldest and the most common mass media in the world. In contrast to print, one of the youngest mass media, internet. Their purpose is quite similar, however, their impact on the individual’s privacy is diametrically opposed.

Even though the modern printing is dated since Johannes Gutenbergs invention of the printing press in 15th century, the prints roots go much deeper into the history. The first evidence of printing has been found in Iraq and surrounded areas, in the place of old Mesopotamia was spread. It is believed, that the artefacts are dated from 3000BC and even earlier.[2] Despite the long history of print, privacy as a generally accepted right was welcomed only in the 19th-20th century. By that time people recognised phenomena which posed a threat to their privacy. Not only gossiping began to spread in newspapers, but also the technological development, namely photography, became a trade. Because of these changes, Samuel Warren and Louis Brandeis issued a demand (known as: “the right to be alone” [4]) for a separate general right to privacy which ensured protection against emotional suffering. [3] The whole publication named “The right to privacy” was the first and the most influential article in the US law history. As a consequence of this enormous success, the law of the US was modified and helped to change the public opinion to accept the idea of privacy. Although Europe recognised The right to privacy and followed the US in creating a protection of different kind.[3] As the technology has been progressing and society evolving, the level of privacy in print media was decreasing until in 2000 the privacy law was extended. After 2000 the privacy law was adjusted several times followed with the most strict reformation since the publication “The right to privacy” in 2010. As a consequence of all the strict restrictions which included not only print, but also all media, print became the most secure and private mass media in the world. [5,6] Majority of people today choose print in form of books, newspapers or magazines to be able to enjoy privacy and peace. Compare to the rest of the mass media, the hard copy print is not linked to any other services and the ownership of a book or newspapers for example, offers readers undoubtable feeling of safety and privacy. That is the reason why people still prefer print instead of other mass media.

On the other hand, the one of the youngest mass media, the internet. The modern internet began to shape in 1983 when researchers based on the existing platform started to assemble the “network of network”. [8] However, the rise of popularity was recognised only after scientist Tim Berners-Lee’s invention of the World Wide Web in 1990. While it tends to be confused with the internet itself, the World Wide Web is actually just a tool to access the online world via websites and hyperlinks. [9] With the rising number of users, hand in hand comes also the security and privacy issues. The very first attack on the network is dated in November 1988, an MIT scientist David D. Clark remembers exactly the day he gazed on the dark side of the Internet. He presided a meeting of network engineers to examine and eliminate a “computer worm” which was scudding across the network, when one of the leading computer engineers screamed: “Damn… I thought I had fixed that bug…” [10] The consequences were devastating, thousands of machines crashed and caused million dollars damage. The worm effectively used fundamental nature of the Internet – speed, openness and continuity – to infect computer lines with a malicious code, as well as lack of security. [10] Decade after decade, billions of dollars have been poured into the computer security systems, however, in fact the privacy and security issues have been growing worse every year. [7] One of the highest menaces of the new age of the Internet peaked in 2000, when the largest advertising company by that time, DoubleClick, had been collecting unacceptable detailed browsing information of web users via files named “cookies”. [7] Cookies are basically monitoring people’s online movements, something like online footprints, with great precision. These data are usually used for targeting advertisements, whereas without any link to the actual real individual’s names, addresses or phone numbers. However, in 1999 Abacus Direct, that owned a database of around 90 million households contains names, addresses and their offline buying habits, bought DoubleClick, linked together information from cookies and their database. Suddenly, shopping either online or offline, was not private and anonymous anymore, moreover, all the shopping data was archived in personally identifiable “electronic drawers”. [12]

In recent years a concern about the internet privacy has been increasing and people have plenty of good reasons why. As people’s usage of apps and websites skyrocketed, the chance that somebody is violating their privacy has done so. Personal information is extremely expensive or even priceless in this era and business are trying to gather as much of them as possible to be able to more effectively target their advertisements. It is simple mathematics, more data – information is equal to more money. The problem is getting even bigger, since high number of people are still unaware what is happening or some of them believe that they should blame the corporations. Pierce Hogan, a journalist, commented the situation on his blog: “There’s a lack of understanding and ownership being taken by consumers when it comes to internet privacy, and it’s only digging us into a deeper hole. Each year that the public stays “concerned” but not engaged, it becomes harder to turn the ship around.” [13] Unfortunately, tracking and collecting users online steps is not the only issue to be concern about, there are also high security risks. The data collecting is so huge that the business manipulate with enormous amounts of data and that brings an opportunity to data breach. Generally, it means that when somebody as Facebook is collecting these data from its users, they are supposed to prevent any possibility that the data ends up in third party hands. However, this exactly happened in 2016 when President Donald Trump hired a company, Cambridge Analytica, which gained access to more than 50 million Facebook users’s private information. [14] The data which had been viewed was mostly user’s identities, friend networks and especially “likes”. It is believed that the idea was to map peoples behaviour and personalities, based on their “likes” and create perfect targeted digital adds before the election in 2016. [14] This is just a small example of how private data. gained from simple browsing the internet could be misused, but it definitely supports a verdict of Christopher Mims a The Wall Street Journal journalist: “Privacy is dead.” [15]

In the conclusion I would like to summarise and compare these two mass media, print as the oldest and most common mass media in the world and the Internet which brought so much controversy into people’s lives since it was introduced to wide society in 1990. Print as its hard copy form is here numerous decades and I believe it always will have plenty of supporters. People enjoy reading books and disconnect from the “online world” for a while. Nobody can track their activity and nobody knows what they are reading. It can be called a hundred percent privacy, which cannot be achieved with any other mass media. While the Internet offers endless opportunities, challenges and knowledge, but for high surcharge, privacy. On the internet actually privacy does not exist, it never did and probably it never will. However, people should be informed and aware of the loss of their privacy and should change their behaviour to adjust to this fact. There is plenty of options how to decrease the chance of misusing their private data or avoiding stealing their personal information. It is extremely important that people educate themselves how to protect their privacy, because privacy is priceless. In the end, there is still one choice to be just with yourself and switch off from the crazy world out there, grab a book and enjoy your privacy.

Digital Privacy

The term digital privacy can be characterized or explained as by usage of digital means to protect the private data of citizens or businesses. Digital privacy is becoming an important discussion area for all businesses and organizations in this technology era. Furthermore, concerns about the digital privacy on the web is progressively turning into an argument of the international contest. People are getting more worried about the most confidential details of their day-to-day life being monitored, searched and recorded. Because of the internet protocol, (IP) address, user’s activities like their search and web history can be observed on the search engines or servers. In this age, we can encounter quick and sensational changes and improvements in technology and digitalisation. In particular, it is getting much easier to get required information than before likewise, privacy breach is also being observed and sometimes technology helps to uncover abuses.

Presently, due to the increment of the competition among business, it is getting hard for businesses to remain profitable.

Business plans which run without managing their risk could leads to disaster. In addition, data security and confidentiality is becoming an essential part of today’s business plans. Keeping data secured and maintained is becoming more challenging for business some examples of such data are – business plans, reports important documents, projects critical information. Additionally, it is important for the privacy of the business, that only the authorized person gets the excess to the required information. Nowadays, privacy and security of information is getting more complex, which will never going to be resolved. It is a challenge for businesses to keep client’s information private and secure from competitors and also due to the excessive use of technology risks of leaking of information are increasing. Given underneath are some advances or steps which business have accepted to maintain their digital privacy.

Firstly, data encryption standouts amongst the most ideal approach to shield data from unauthorised people’s access and reduce risks. There are many third-party encryption software accessible for businesses and by utilizing this software solutions business can manage their digital privacy. Besides, there are various levels of encryption security available, and businesses can personalise according to their needs and built policies for passwords to ensure protection.

Subsequently, there are some policies and procedures that’s being implemented within the business environment to guarantee security and privacy of the business data and records. In addition, employees should be provided with effective training to maintain digital security and security breaches. It is very important for businesses that their employees should follow the work environment policies and procedures to ensure data protection and security all employees are responsible to keep business privacy maintained.

Additionally, use of the biometric and recognition technologies within the business environment can provide with more accurate identification, decreasing unwanted breaches. Moreover, with this type of technology access to the employees will be granted with the help of their biological characteristics such as iris scan or fingerprints which are hard to duplicate or forge. This type of collected information helps the organisation with the security and the accountability of the data. Logging with the biometrics security framework helps the organisation to keep the track of the personnel activities which can helps to lead to an unfortunate case of security breaches.

Furthermore, digital natives or young individuals who are born or brought up during the age of digital technology they don’t need to learn to become digital natives. However, digital privacy also causes some harm to these natives which has some negative and positive side. These natives were dependent on technology and they build their trust on this. Further, digital natives like to associate via social media like Facebook where, their identity is no more secure. Simultaneously, digital privacy also impacts digital immigrants. Digital immigrants are those individuals which are born before digital revolution. They are opposite of digital natives; digital privacy implication is also affecting them in some ways that they now feel unsafe to use social media or get involved in any other social network. Moreover, they use the traditional way of communication like phones. In addition, organisations should ensure that (before the implementation of any new changes in business structure to strengthen the digital security) both natives and immigrants are happy with the changes. This should be the first priority of the organisation to ensure security breaches don’t occur.

Besides, privacy is no longer a social norm, web organisations are now continually gathering information of their customers to keep track of their daily web activity so that they can focus on commercials obliged to their interests thus breaching privacy. These organizations also share personal information (emails) to third-party websites, bringing endless spam. On the way to its intended destination, information sent over the internet has the potential to pass through dozens of different computer systems. Each system has capability of capturing and storing information while making communication with on another. Internet user’s online activities can be monitored, both by their own service provider as well as any system operator of any internet sites which are capable of capturing them. Also, there are practically no online services that can guarantee absolute privacy rights. According to federal law, if information is easily accessible then viewing or disclosing the information to the public is not considered illegal. Anyone can access public messages on the internet at any time, even after the original message was written.

Nevertheless, digital security concerns cannot be ignored in this modern era of rapid expansion of businesses. As more and more people are engaging with computer-based devices therefore digital privacy should be accounted for accordingly. More often changes to the new inventions could alter personal life and it also affect the individual’s identity. Data is like currency for most organizations, they gather vast amounts of data. Companies have to stop gathering such an amount of data, as personal information is confidential and shouldn’t be exploited. Sometimes, digital privacy gets hacked with only the email address. Hackers can intercept the other persons credit card details to buy their own stuff. In the past, people were afraid of putting their card details on the internet but now due to advancements in technology data is now more secured and encrypted which leads to people buy more than ever.

In conclusion, digital security on the internet has turned into a major issue in recent years, something must be done to guarantee web users are in a safe and private browsing environment. Our digital privacy is at risk and the government should set some workplace rules and regulations to ensure integrity, confidentiality, consistency of business to give a healthy business environment. With the expansion of technology and rapid innovation of new technologies, people’s privacy has diminished. By putting obligations on getting access to certain type of information by the user, organisations can keep users’ information save by implementing privacy measures. Only association’s important staff chooses which information needs to be shared or not. Lastly, privacy policies should be shortened and simplified, so that individuals can easily understand what they are agreeing to. Most of the time solutions are in the companies’ hand, who should not share user information with third-party companies or monitor web activities in order to deliver targeted advertisements.

Privacy is important for human society to operate. the matter isn’t that the knowledge exists however that it reaches the incorrect folks. data on the web might bring nice advantages to society, and to people, once immense datasets may be refined to yield data otherwise unavailable. however once the knowledge is gathered, a preventative principle needs to apply. it’s an excessive amount of of a stretch to believe John Perry Barlow, the web rights pioneer United Nations agency died on, once he quipped that “relying on the govt. to shield your privacy is like asking a spectator to put in your window blinds”; however it doesn’t facilitate when it seems that everything the general public sector will with the large datasets it’s are going to be overseen by the minister for fun.

Governments have to be compelled to keep our trust; however, technology erodes privacy in 2 ways. the primary is solely smartphones. Most Britons – seventieth – currently carry around with them devices that record and report their location, their friends, and their interests all the time. The second is that the ease with that 2 (or more) datasets may be combined to bring out secrets that are apparent in neither assault its own, and to spot people from the knowledge that seems to be entirely anonymised. By the start of this century, researchers had established that just about ninetieth of the North American nation population can be unambiguously known just by combining their gender, their date of birth and their zip code. all types of things may be dependably inferred from freely obtainable data: four likes on Facebook are typically enough to reveal a person’s sexual orientation.

Underlying such issues is human psychological science. nobody forces anybody to reveal their preferences on Facebook: sort button is genuinely fashionable. the newest spectacular breach of privacy came once the exercise app Strava printed a worldwide map of the three trillion knowledge points its users had uploaded, that clothed to reveal the situation of heretofore secret North American nation military bases around the world. however the possibility to boast regarding wherever you’ve got been and the way quick you were moving is precisely what makes Strava fashionable. Psychology, the maximum amount as technology, created this a vast security breach. The users gave evangelistic consent, however, it had been fabulously ill-informed. Then again, how might anyone offer consent once not even the companies that collect the info will shrewdness it’ll be used?

The protection of personal knowledge from malevolent hackers could be a technical race one cannot leave. however, the protection of privacies from unintended revealing is primarily a social or psychological downside. the answer cannot simply be one in all consent from the info suppliers, as a result of in most things nobody has the knowledge necessary to provide their consent. What’s required instead could be an amendment of angle among people who harvest and method the info. they have perpetually to raise themselves – or to be asked by society – however, this data can be used for damage and the way to stop that from happening.

IOT AND SMART CITIES

What is IoT?

Internet of things is a system of those devices, appliances or machines which has the ability to transfer the data over internet without the need of human to human interface.

What is a smart city?

Smart city is an area where internet of things sensor are used to collect data of citizens or devices that is processed or analyzed traffic management, power systems, water managements etc.

SECURITY AND PRIVACY

Security means protection of a data from unauthorized access where as privacy means protection of personal identification information. Security can be achieved without privacy but privacy cannot be achieved without security:

• Constrained devices.
• Weak encryption
• Botnet Activities Related Security Threats in IoT Smart Cities
• Leakage in Data Sensing
• Threats of AI in Smart Cities
• RFID Tags of Smart Cities Cause Data Privacy Issues

ADVANTAGES AND DISADVANTAGES

It is yet to be answered if a smart city has advantages or not.

After looking at many scholarly articles it will be too early to say if smart cities are successful or not. Looking at the privacy and security issues, a lot needs to be done in order to make smart cities secure.

SOLUTION

• Multitenancy, a serious problem, can be solved by creating a separate virtual LAN.
• No leakage of data
• Strict regulations required to protect cyber security
• Stop Artificial intelligence to access data
• Make it secure from DoS, Man In the Middle etc attacks

CONCLUSION

As this project suggests that IoT is playing an important role in order to make on city into smarter but there have been privacy and security issues. Some measures need to be taken in order to make smart city more secure and have more privacy. There is no doubt IoT smart city has many benefits but few disadvantages has make it questionable.

REFERENCES

1. Burhan, M., Rehman, R., Khan, B., & Kim, B.S. (2018). IoT Elements, Layered Architectures and Security Issues: A Comprehensive Survey. Sensors, 18(9), p.2796.
2. Cherrier, S., Movahedi, Z., & Ghamri-Doudane,Y.M. (2015). Multi-tenancy in decentralised IoT. In 2015 IEEE 2nd World Forum on Internet of Things (WF-IoT) (pp. 256-261). IEEE.
3. Cui, L., Xie, G., Qu,Y., Gao, L., & Yang,Y. (2018). Security and privacy in smart cities: Challenges and opportunities. IEEE access, 6, pp.46134-46145.
4. Falco, G.,Viswanathan, A., Caldera, C., & Shrobe, H. (2018). A Master Attack Methodology for an AI-Based Automated Attack Planner for Smart Cities. IEEE Access, 6, pp.48360-48373.
5. Ijaz, S., Shah, M.A., Khan, A., & Ahmed, M. (2016). Smart cities: A survey on security concerns. International Journal of Advanced Computer Science and Applications, 7(2), pp.612-625.
6. IoT Analytics. (2015). The 10 most popular Internet of Things applications right now. Retrieved from https://iot-analytics.com/10-internet-of-things-applications/
7. IoT Analytics. (2018). The Top 10 IoT Segments in 2018 – based on 1,600 real IoT projects. Retrieved from https://iot-analytics.com/top-10-iot-segments-2018-real-iot- projects/
8. Koroniotis, N., Moustafa, N., Sitnikova, E., & Slay, J. (2017). Towards developing network forensic mechanism for botnet activities in the IoT based on machine learning techniques. In International Conference on Mobile Networks and Management (pp. 30-44). Springer, Cham

The Internet has become a great tool that is used almost by every person in the world. It changed the way how people live. With surfing the web, people share data about themselves. Many people are unaware of the information that websites collect about them. On the other hand, other people who are concerned about their privacy and know what many websites do with their data are limiting their use of the Internet, abstaining from purchasing products online.

It can be possible that websites without the permission of the user, they track their usage of the websites. Therefore, privacy is the most important thing that users need. “Warren and Brandeis [1] defined privacy as the right to be let alone” (Chung, W, and Paynter, J. 2002). Although some people don’t care about privacy, they should be aware while using websites because sometimes websites track their usage of the web page, and some companies sell users’ data to a third party. The essay aims to discuss the privacy threats that people must be concerned about and increase awareness about the importance of internet privacy.

Web tracking is one of the issues that users must care about. Web tracking is the practice by which websites identify and collect information about users (FreeCodeCamp, 2018). Most people don’t know how much of their activities are being tracked. Websites also use web trackers to collect your personal information. Web trackers do not only collect your browsing of a website, but it collects more information. For example, your IP address, where you came from, your location, etc. “According to a study by Ghostery, 79 percent of websites globally are tracking your data” (FreeCodeCamp, 2018). Websites with the biggest tracking networks are social media sites and the big, non-private search engines (choosetoencrypt. 2019). One main purpose of tracking is for advertisers to influence customer purchasing behavior. “In November 2017, Yale Privacy Lab detected trackers in over 75% of the 300 Android apps it analyzed” (Nguyen, N. 2018).

Another issue to consider is that some tracking companies sell users data without their permission. Information about one’s usage in a web site can be stored in a cookie. Many websites ask the user to confirm that their website is using cookies before the user uses the webpage. However, a big issue is that many websites store cookies in the user’s hardware without his knowledge. By using cookies, companies can collect personal information such as location, buying habits, e-mail address or the portions of a web site that were looked at previously. “This information can be combined into mailing lists for direct marketing purposes or it can be sold to third parties” (Chung, W, and Paynter, J. 2002). Companies such as Amazon, Apple, Facebook, Google, Hulu, and Netflix are some of the most well-known websites/applications. These websites provide a service to the consumer, while at the same time they collect, use, and sell their data without consent to third parties (Rolfe, W. 2019). Additionally, many users are not aware that these websites often share their data, allowing them to compile thorough profiles on users.

Although It is impossible to restrict the internet, governments should make internet privacy laws stricter so that users of the internet can feel safe when using the web. People must be careful when visiting a website because many websites provide a privacy statement but the problem that many people don’t read it. New Zealand based web sites are expected to have privacy statements on their web sites under the New Zealand Privacy Act 1993 (Chung, W, and Paynter, J. 2002).

Internet privacy has more issues that people must be aware of. Countries have to strict the privacy laws so that users of the internet feel safe with knowing that their data will not be sold or used for other purposes because a primary benefit of internet privacy is that it allows individuals to remain anonymous. Internet privacy is the foundation of the internet and it will never fail to improve.

References:

1. Chung, W and Paynter, J. (2002). Privacy Issues on the Internet.
2. Web Tracking: What You Should Know About Your Privacy Online. (2018). Retrieved 27 02, 2020, from https://www.freecodecamp.org/news/what-you-should-know-about-web-tracking-and-how-it-affects-your-online-privacy-42935355525/
3. Rolfe, W (2019). Despite new internet privacy law, your private data can still be sold and shared without consent. Retrieved 27 02, 2020, from https://www.themainewire.com/2019/06/new-internet-privacy-law-allows-your-private-data-to-be-sold-and-shared-without-your-consent/
4. Nguyen, N. (2018) A Lot of Apps Sell Your Data. Here’s What You Can Do About It. Retrieved 27 02, 2020, from https://www.buzzfeednews.com/article/nicolenguyen/how-apps-take-your-data-and-sell-it-without-you-even
5. What is Internet Tracking? (and How to Avoid Being Tracked). (2019). Retrieved 27 02, 2020, from https://choosetoencrypt.com/search-encrypt/internet-tracking-why-its-bad-and-how-to-avoid-it/

The 21st century is known for being called a digital era. The rapid development of science and technology has led to significant changes in people’s lives. Today, it is hard to imagine living a day without using electronic devices and connecting to the Internet. Lots of everyday operations that were time-consuming and tiring before became possible to do on the Internet. There is no doubt that the use of the Internet made people’s lives much more comfortable, but still, the use of the Internet is quite a debatable issue in the modern world. People are using a lot of social app right now and they could publish anything on their account, such as pictures, videos or words. Anything that shared in public is not private because privacy is the concept of concealment from anyone or anything and it controlled by their own. In particular, such a thing as privacy became much harder to maintain, considering that people put a lot of personal data on the Internet. Today, the use of the Internet is no longer an option, but a necessity that forces people to upload their personal data to the Internet where everyone could find it, leaving them without an opportunity to maintain their privacy. Therefore, People need to find a smart way to use internet in order to save their privacy.

When people publish anything, it is no longer private. One very common kind of information we post is personal information about our daily lives. There are two types of personal data that people upload to the Internet. The first one is the things that people post about their everyday life on social media. Recently, the rapid development of social media has led to the fact that almost everyone has a profile on at least one social media. Sharing about the details of one’s life became oversharing as people tend to post online everything that happens to them. The overuse of social media has a lot of negative consequences, including mental health and addiction problems. There is also a negative outcome of social media overuse that one may not realize at the beginning. However, while sharing with the world, people share not only with their friends and family but also with the rest of the world. Everyone can access their profiles and check all the information they have put there. In particular, it became a common practice for employers to check the social media of the candidates for the positions. According to the statistics, 70 percent of employers check the candidate’s profiles due to the wide variety of reasons, including a need to find the information that supports one’s qualification for the job or the reasons not to hire this particular person (Salm). On the one side, it is a good way to learn more about the candidate and see what other people think and post about them as on the interview; everyone would try to act and behave in a professional way. On another side, the person may be refused the job due to the style of life they lead in their free time that has nothing to do with their professional skills.

One may say that people choose what they are posting online, and no one is forcing them to do so. Even though it is undoubtedly true, the need to talk about the second type of data appears. Nowadays, every person leaves behind a virtual trail every single time someone goes online. Today’s smartphones have data tracking software, cookies, and web bugs that are activated every time one search for something or change location. For example, if someone goes to the store, the place knows only what one has bought and maybe their name if they paid with a credit card. Meanwhile, if a person chooses to purchase something in the Internet shop, the shop knows what types of products one was considering, searching for, and thinking about buying or not. All of that data is carefully analyzed today in order to create successful marketing strategies and campaigns. One major issue with this is “aggregation, which emerges from the fusion of small bits of seemingly innocuous data. When combined, the information becomes much more telling”, (Solove in Lunsford et al., Ch. 28). Further, people may be stopped from accessing knowledge about how data regarding them is being used, and even accessing or correcting this data. According to Solove, secondary use of data entails the exploitation of information sans the subject’s consent (in Lunsford et al., Ch. 28). The length of time for which data is stored is unknown. Equally contentious is the issue of how the data is used in the present and the future (Solove in Lunsford et al., Ch. 28). The use of information has vast implications for accountability.

The main problem with the erosion of privacy in the modern world is that one’s personal data becomes a valuable resource that can be sold or traded. People are affected by those who obtain their personal data in their daily life, and they could even not notice it. For example, political parties can but the personal data of the organization’s clients and target them as potential voters. Today, people have no way of knowing whether their personal data is a subject of interest to others, and they cannot control it in any way. Though efforts are being made through laws like Right to be Forgotten, safeguarding privacy on the internet is still hard (Intelligence Squared. Debate). Once one needs to do something on the web, they have to be prepared for giving out their personal data.

However, someone will argue that individuals can refuse to purchase goods or services online, to safeguard their privacy. Further,some argues that “the next time you hear someone bang-on about how the Internet is destroying individual privacy …remember all the privacy it creates” in terms of competitive data innovation. But the question mark lies in considering the impact of privacy erosion and misuse of data in present times. Further, it may not be realistic to actually limit online purchases, in a day and age where everything from mobile bills and plan renewals, to hotel bookings, and plane tickets can only be paid for online with ease. The inconvenience of giving up on the internet far outweighs the benefits of such an action. To suggest that one may limit internet use to prevent invasion of privacy is an unrealistic suggestion, given the tech-savvy world and advanced societies of present times.

To sum up, privacy became a rare luxury in the modern world. The Internet expanded to such an extent when it is not possible not to use it. Whenever one needs to do something on the Internet, they give out pieces of information about them that result in creating their online profiles by the others. There is no way to avoid this, which means that privacy is no longer entitled to people but rather something they should fight for. The private use of internet is also facilitated by technologies such as Virtual Private Networks, internet cloaking, and programs to encrypt critical information, computer security measures, or passwords to prevent others from hacking or accessing private data (BBC Online). While we can use the internet privately, it should not be this way, because the entire benefit of technologies such as the internet was the anonymity and immediacy of results it provided. The internet is eroding privacy, but technology can move faster still. The question confronting consumers today is whether they can keep up with the rapid advancement.

Technology is a knowledge devoted to creating tools which can be useful in many ways and in many fields or processing actions and extracting the materials. We can also say technology is an application of science which is used to solve problems. (htt9) We apply technology in nearly all that we do in our day-by-day lives; we use technology at work, we use technology for correspondence, transportation, getting the hang of, fabricating, verifying information, scaling organizations thus substantially more. Technology is human information which includes apparatuses, materials, and frameworks. There are may pros and cons of using technology, One the biggest issue is privacy.

If we look back and compare the current technology with the past technology, there is a huge change. For communication we used letters(mails) and there are landlines. Our private information is not leaked or stolen by anyone. There is no internet or smart phones for communication. In present world we have smartphones laptops, smart watches, social media apps which are all connected through internet, everything is linked. So our data is getting stolen are we are not aware of this.

Privacy means that a person should not be wanted to be disturbed by anything or anyone it also includes his/her personal information and data. The best way to describe privacy in this context is in terms of “restricted access/limited control” (Tavani and Moor 2001). Restricted access means that there is a form of privacy where some people are allowed access and others are not, so a person can stop others from viewing their information if they so choose. It is reasonable to expect the same amount of privacy in these situations that one would have if not using technology. Although technology has a major impact on the gathering, storage, retrieval and dissemination of information its main ethical impact relates to accessibility/inaccessibility and the manipulation of information. It creates the possibility of wider as well as simultaneous access to information. By implication, it becomes easier to access a person’s private information by more people. On the other hand, a person can be excluded from necessary information in electronic format by means of a variety of security measures such as passwords. Due to increase and growth in technology there are many privacy issues now a days they are

Monitoring of people in public and workplaces it can be said that it is done through electronic eyes. Using closed circuit cameras, hacking laptops or desktops webcam, taking control of smartphones camera …. etc. The companies justify the use of such technology is to increase productivity this practice, clearly points out the privacy problem using technologies. Using this technology can also lead to a feeling of fear and of all ways being watched – the so-called panopticon phenomenon. The pros of using electronic eyes are preventing crimes, identifying criminals and monitoring important places. The interception and reading of emails and messages. When we send the messages, they are converted into data packets and transmitted over the internet. People will intercept the data and the information causing data loss and to prevent these practices there are many software’s and technologies, but many people cannot afford it. Merging of database is which contains personal information. This is also known as data banking we actually leave for personal data in many places like example when we go to shopping malls, we will feel many coupons for winning lottery, or we will leave our personal details for contact. Our personal information is gathered from many small databases and it is integrated into one central database. all this data is used by many sites to check our interest in their products. Another major threat to privacy is the raise of hackers and crackers who break Inter computer systems or smart phones to steal of personal data.

There are a number of different groups looking to gather information on people, because information can lead to knowledge and knowledge is power. Luckily for the people looking for information, the Internet makes it easy to gather a large amount of information quickly. WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange described the Internet as the “greatest spying machine the world has ever seen. It is easy to see why he thinks that this is the case. Some of the organizations looking to collect user data are Facebook, Google, and the National Security Administration of the United States. The National Security Administration (NSA) is an organization that has roots in code breaking in World War I and World War II but has grown into one of the largest government organizations in terms of staff and funding. There are estimates that say that the NSA has nearly 40,000 employees and an estimated budget of $11 billion, though it is probably more than that Following the 9/11 terrorist attacks, the NSA was discreetly authorized to spy on American citizens without a warrant to do so, which has stirred up quite a bit of controversy. Two other major players – Google and Facebook – have similar tactics and similar goals. Both companies provide a number of services to users free of charge, because their primary source of revenue is selling user information to advertisers. These companies have the capability to track user traffic and are essentially giant databases filled with user information that can be mined and sold for a profit. While Google and Facebook aren’t the only websites that do this, they are two of the major players that come up when user privacy is discussed. Just to check how much Google knows about you, you can check your ‘Google Ads’ settings where they use the data they have collected on you to guess your age, gender, and interests. This is the information that Google uses to tailor ads to everyone that uses their services.

The increase in information gathering, with or without the knowledge and consent of the people whose information is being gathered, is definitely cause for alarm. However, different demographics of people have varying levels of concern when it comes to information privacy. Younger people, for example, are less likely to be concerned about Internet privacy than their older counterparts, even though they are more likely to know that their information is being collected and tracked. Females are more likely to be concerned with Internet privacy than males, and people with more education are less likely to be concerned. Interestingly, the more familiar with the Internet the person seems to be, the more comfortable they seem to be with their personal data being collected. The issue with user data collection is the risk of misuse, and what different people/companies view as proper use of personal information. For example, insurance companies have been mining for client data to look for possible health risks and have been accused of changing client rates based on the data they have mined. In fact, Facebook has been caught showing false endorsements from a user’s friends for products they have been paid to advertise, and don’t tell you when they do so What happens in these situations is that an ad will appear on user A’s Facebook, claiming that user B recommends a product to them, when in reality user B has probably never used the product being endorsed by “them” and has no idea that their name is being used to advertise a product.

1. Introduction

On the 20th of November 2019, Nigerian cyberspace was abuzz with the video of what appeared to be two young people having sex[footnoteRef:1]. The video itself began with the propping of the smartphone used to film by the male partner with what appeared to be the full consent of the female partner. [1: Michael, Isaac. “Twitter Users React To Leaked Sex Tape Of Babcock Students.” Informationng.com https://www.informationng.com/2019/11/twitter-users-react-to-leaked-sex-tape-of-babcock-students.html (accessed December 23, 2019)]

A slew of reactions trailed the video, ranging from disgust to amusement and by the end of the day, it had been uploaded on various pornographic websites. Curiously, the headlines of numerous blogs and porn sites which carried the news focused on the female partner rather the male with titles such as “Babcock girl swallows cum” trending. By the end of the week, the young lady in question had been expelled from her school, Babcock University.

There were two major conflicting views on the expulsion of the lady. The first being that, the school was justified because the actions of the two students, the lady in particular, since the male partner had been earlier suspended, had brought disrepute to it. On the other hand, there were clamours that the actions of the school were biased, unfair and discriminatory towards the lady since she was not responsible for and ignorant of the distribution of the video. Holders of the second view called upon the University to locate the original sharer of the video and purge itself of disrepute by proving to be an institution that cared about the welfare of its students who were of cyber abuse.

This second view, forms the basis of the reasoning behind this article.

2. Revenge Pornography

Revenge pornography has been defined to mean, “[t]he practice of disclosing nude or sexually explicit images and videos, often along with identifying personal information, of former romantic partners without their consent.”[footnoteRef:2] [2: Bambauer, Derek. “Exposed”. Minnesota Law Review. 98 no. 6 (2014): 2025-102]

However, it is important to note that the term, “revenge pornography” is often used as a synonym for various forms of non-consensual image-based abuse.[footnoteRef:3] In their article on the non-consensual sharing of images, Walker and Sleath seem to acknowledge the inadequacy of the term as they suggest, “…it is not only ex-partners seeking revenge who non-consensually share, but a variety of other people who do this for different reasons e.g., a joke, money or indeed for no particular or specified reason”.[footnoteRef:4] [3: McGlynn, Carol, and Erika Rackley. (2016). “Not ‘‘revenge porn,’’ but abuse: Let’s call it image-based sexual abuse.” Inherently Human (blog), Gender & Law at Durham (GLAD), 2016 https://inherentlyhuman.wordpress.com/2016/02/15/not-revenge-porn-but-abuse-lets-call-it-image-based-sexual-abuse/] [4: Walker, Kate and Emma Sleath. “A systematic review of the current knowledge regarding revenge pornography and non-consensual sharing of sexually explicit media.” Aggression and Violent Behavior. 36 (2017): 9 – 24. doi: 10.1016/j.avb.2017.06.010]

McGlynn and Rackley who coined the more inclusive term, “image-based sexual abuse”, have this to say about its importance: “Terminology frames options for law reform, as well as playing a vital expressive role in our public debates. A major purpose of the criminal law is to express societal condemnation of specific activities with the hope of changing people’s behaviour. The law can only achieve these purposes if the label applied to a crime is the right one.”[footnoteRef:5] [5: McGlynn, Carol, and Erika Rackley. “Image-Based Sexual Abuse: More than Just ‘Revenge Porn’”. Birmingham: the University of Birmingham, 2016 (accessed December 23, 2019). https://claremcglynn.files.wordpress.com/2015/10/imagebasedsexualabuse-mcglynnrackley-briefing.pdf]

Additionally, a distinction must be made between revenge pornography and other forms of pornography. For one, revenge pornography is often distributed without the consent of the victim involved even though it is often made by them or with their consent[footnoteRef:6]. Besides, the sexually explicit nature of a thing does not necessarily make it pornographic. According to Rea: [6: Bedor, Emma Celeste. “The Politics of Revenge (Pornography)”. Screen Bodies 1, no. 1 (Spring 2016): 32–50 © Berghahn Journals doi: 10:3167/screen.2016.010103 (accessed December 23, 2019) ]

Despite the fact that sexually explicit pictures, performances, and literature can be pornographic, it seems clear that not all such items must be. Photos of naked people—even some depicting human genitalia, sexual arousal, or violence against the subjects—can appear non-pornographically in works of art, documentary films, or reputable magazines such a Life or National Geographic … Furthermore, I take it that if a husband or wife were to have sexually explicit photos or videos taken of himself or herself for the private viewing of his or her spouse, or if he or she were to perform live in sexually explicit ways for his or her spouse, none of this would necessarily be pornographic … there would be nothing pornographic about it despite the sexually explicit nature of the “performance” or photograph, and despite the fact that the performer or photograph would no doubt arouse (and even be treated as pornography by) some of its viewers[footnoteRef:7]. [7: Rea, Michael C. “What Is Pornography?” Noûs 35 no. 1 (2001): 118–145.]

Under the Nigerian legal system though a plethora of legislations exist, there is no formal recognition of any offense known as revenge pornography or image-based sexual abuse[footnoteRef:8] and therefore no official definition exists for them. Additionally, the majority of these laws are designed to shield the public from what the State determines to be obscene or unwholesome rather than individual privacy protection[footnoteRef:9]. [8: The Obscene Publications Act (1961), Children and Young Persons (Harmful Publications) Act (1961), Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria (1999) (as amended), Information Technology Act (2000), The Criminal Code Act (2004), ECOWAS Directives on Fighting Cyber Crime (2011), African Union Convention on Cyber security and Personal Data Protection (2014), Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention, etc.) Act (2015)] [9: Ikpeze, Nnamdi G., Oyebanke Apara, “The Rise of Non-Consensual Pornography in Nigerian Cyberspace: Imperatives for Statutory Criminalisation”. African Journal of Law and Human Rights 3 no. 2 (2019); 79-85 http://journals.ezenwaohaetorc.org/index.php/AJLHR/article/viewFile/795/764 (accessed December 23, 2019)]

A few exceptions to this exist such as the provision for the offence of Criminal Defamation, for instance. It is provided for in Sections 373-381 of the Criminal Code Act, where it is defined as a matter likely to injure the reputation of a person by exposing him to hatred, contempt, or ridicule, or likely to damage any person in his profession or trade by an injury to his reputation[footnoteRef:10]. However considering the fact that an acceptable defence to the offence of criminal defamation is the veracity of the defamatory material itself, it is not a viable defence for victims of image-based sexual abuse. [10: Nigerian criminal jurisdiction is divided into the North and South and governed by two substantive Acts, The Penal Code Act and Criminal Code Act respectively.]

Section 170 of the Criminal Code Act similarly provides that anyone who sends objects or words of an obscene or indecent nature are guilty of a misdemeanour and liable to imprisonment for one year. Sadly, the provisions of this Section are explicitly qualified to be merely by post and no other means.

However, the Cybercrimes (Prohibition, Prevention etc.) Act of 2015 has proved to be more effective for prosecutorial purposes of the offence. Section 24 provides that any person who sends by means of computer systems and networks – in clear contrast to the above section of the Criminal Code – any message of an indecent, obscene or menacing character or one that is grossly offensive and pornographic shall be liable to a fine of not more than seven million naira or imprisonment for a term of three years or both. Indeed, under the Act, there has been a record of one conviction by the Court of a jilted lover who, after unsuccessfully attempting to blackmail his former lover into paying a sum of money, uploaded her nude pictures online[footnoteRef:11]. [11: State v Ayan, FHC/AD/17c/2017]

While criticism about what is meant by computer systems and networks and if it includes phones as well as if said obscene publications were simply published on the internet rather than sent to one or more persons abound, it remains clear that this Act and its provisions remain the most relevant as it concerns image-based sexual abuse on the internet in Nigeria today.

3. Revenge Pornography Is Violence Against Women

Research has shown that women are victims of 90% of revenge pornography[footnoteRef:12]. Revenge porn affects the right of women to dignity uniquely in a way men are not. Steeped deeply in our culture are elements of blame accorded to women for failing to be responsible for the preservation of their dignity thereby making revenge pornography a very (un)unique form of victim blaming rooted in a focus on autonomy; that the individual was somehow in a position of control to negotiate the boundaries of what was revealed or not revealed about them.[footnoteRef:13] In many cases, female victims are blamed for placing themselves in such a vulnerable position, not unlike many arguments made by rape defendants in their own defence with nothing said about her partner who is very often the poster, lashing out in revenge. [12: Citron, Danielle Keats and Mary Anne Franks. “Criminalizing Revenge Porn.” Wake Forest Law Review 49 (2014): 345–91] [13: Austin, Lisa. (2012). “Privacy, Shame and the Anxieties of Identity.” Available online: http://papers.ssrn.com/ sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2061748 (accessed December 23, 2019)]

In the case of the Babcock student, while the University equally condemned both parties – for having sex – nothing was said about the poster, another student of the school, not even after a belated public apology, which was promptly taken down following huge outrage[footnoteRef:14]. [14: Michael, Isaac. “Babcock Sex Tape: Twitter User Tenders Apologies For Sharing The Video (Photo).” Informationng.com https://www.informationng.com/2019/11/babcock-sex-tape-twitter-user-tenders-apologies-for-sharung-the-video-photo-html (accessed December 23, 2019)]

Revenge pornography has been described as a form of cyberbullying which degrades women sexually and professionally[footnoteRef:15]. Cyberbullying itself has been defined as “any behaviour performed through electronic or digital media by individuals or groups that repeatedly communicates hostile or aggressive messages intended to inflict harm or discomfort on others”[footnoteRef:16]. [15: Filipovic, Jill. “‘Revenge Porn’ Is about Degrading Women Sexually and Professionally,” Guardian (U.K.). http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2013/jan/28/revenge-porn-degrades-women (accessed December 23, 2019)] [16: Mc Mahon, Ciaran. (2014). “Why We Need a New Theory of Cyberbullying. Working Paper Series #14.3.cb.” Available online: http://papers.ssrn.com/sol3/papers.cfm?abstract_id=2531796 (accessed December 23, 2019).]

In an article for The Guardian, Cadwalladr writes about Hunter Moore, described as “the Internet’s most hated man”,[footnoteRef:17]for his website dedicated to the uploads of photos of nude women in the following words: [17: Lee, Dave. “IsAnyoneUp’s Hunter Moore: ‘The Net’s Most Hated Man.’” BBC. http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/technology-17784232 (accessed December 23, 2019).]

It’s pure misogyny. It’s about hating women. It’s about hurting them. That’s the whole purpose of the site. It wasn’t about the pictures. There were hundreds of people self-submitting photos, but they’re not victims because they are saying: “Hey, you can post my nude picture.” But that wasn’t interesting. The thing is humiliating people. The kind of people who would never post their photo on a site like that, and who have a lot to lose. Who have high-profile jobs, or could have their entire life destroyed. That’s what he found enjoyable. That’s what his followers found enjoyable.[footnoteRef:18] [18: Cadwalladr, Carole. 2014. “Charlotte Laws’ Fight with Hunter Moore, the Internet’s Revenge Porn King.” The Guardian. http://www.theguardian.com/culture/2014/mar/30/charlotte-laws-fight-with-Internet-revenge-porn-king (accessed December 23 2019).]

For a long time, it has been shown that the Internet is a safer space for men than women as technology merely offers new avenues for the perpetration of age-long biases and harms against women[footnoteRef:19]. This startling state of things, when combined with the fact that access to the Internet has been declared a human right by the United Nations, clarifies the need to accept revenge porn and other forms of image-based sexual abuse as a gendered form of violence against women[footnoteRef:20]. [19: Powell, Anastasia. “Configuring Consent: Emerging Technologies, Unauthorized Sexual Images and Sexual Assault.” Australian & New Zealand Journal of Criminology 43 no 1 (2010) 76–90.] [20: Human Rights Council Resolution 32/3, U.N. Doc. A/HRC/32/L.20 ]

4. The Way Forward

Several recommendations have been put forward as ways to protect women in digital spaces. One of such recommendations is the need to implement a better legal framework for these offences. This would include lengthier jail terms and explicit definitions which would serve as deterrent to would-be offenders. New legislation should also extend to cover threats to distribute without consent. One of the current failings of the Cybersecurity Act is the way it appears to trivialise revenge porn by classifying it with other non-sexual internet crimes and treating it as a misdemeanour with an imprisonment term of 3 years. Considering the effects which the unwanted sharing of these images cause to the victims, ranging from suicide, to depression, to loss of income, sterner punishments should be awarded to those found guilty.

In furtherance of this and being cognizant of the fact that being forced to withdraw off the internet is a violation of many human rights such as the right to association[footnoteRef:21], the right to dignity[footnoteRef:22], the right to privacy[footnoteRef:23] and use of the internet, the scope of the Fundamental Rights Enforcement Procedure (FREP) Rules 2009 should be enlarged to accommodate proceedings which entail image-based sexual abuse. The discriminatory nature of these acts should also be taken into note[footnoteRef:24]. [21: Section 40 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).] [22: Section 34 of the Constitution of the Fedderal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).] [23: Section 37 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended).] [24: Section 42 of the Constitution of the Federal Republic of Nigeria 1999 (as amended) provides for the right against discrimination based on sex.]

Victim support which should also be made available to include automatic anonymity for all complainants and a civil remedy to provide victims with alternative options.

5. Conclusion

The need to protect women and affirm a commitment to their safety becomes ever more glaring as more and more Nigerians begin to spend time on the internet, carrying over already held prejudices into new environments which in themselves provide more reach than was previously possible. The phrase, the internet never forgets, comes to mind.

Challenges in the implementation of the above recommendations are many. General societal attitudes to sexual offences that happen off the internet such poor enforcement of laws in Nigeria such as victim blaming and their emotional manipulation coupled with low conviction rates serve as obstructions[footnoteRef:25]. Added to this is the unwillingness of victims due to perceived misplaced guilt over the actions of the perpetrators themselves enabling them to go scot-free. [25: Adebajo, ‘Kunle. “FACT CHECK: No, it is not true Nigeria has recorded only 18 convictions in rape cases.” Icirnigeria.org. https://www.icirnigeria.org/fact-check-no-it-isnt-true-nigeria-has-recorded-only-18-convictions-in-rape-cases/ (accessed December 23, 2019)]

In addition, the view that the right to free speech permits individuals on the internet to say or do whatever they want stalls attempts to curb online sexual abuse[footnoteRef:26]. This is akin to the common defence used by rapists that their victim were asking for it. [26: Chen, Adrian. “Unmasking Reddit’s Violentacrez, The Biggest Troll on the Web.” Gawker.com. http://gawker.com/5950981/unmasking-reddits-violentacrez-the-biggest-troll-on-the-web (accessed December 23, 2019).]

Much remains to be done to ensure that women are better protected from all forms of image-based sexual abuse online. The onus remains on the lawmakers, community leaders, educators and legal institutions to ensure that women are not prevented and discouraged from living their full lives both physically and virtually.

Biography

1. Favour Borokini is a lawyer interested in female rights and the digital innovation.