Online Privacy - Is There Such a Thing?

Many people assume that if they don't explicitly identify themselves on the internet, then their actions on it are anonymous. However, this isn't necessarily so. Standard logins can reveal more information about a person than many realize. For example, everyone has an IP Address, point of entry, domain, etc. and these are not hard to find and to track. Indeed many companies plant cookies to follow the users and determine their interests, desires, and habits.

Of course, many people are aware of the existence of cookies and often/sometimes(?) employ software to disable them. But by then it's too late to stop them from identifying a person, or coming very close. And the sophistication of identification techniques on the internet is growing.

Many business will tell you that they don;t need to identify an individual - that they only want to identify what their commercial interests in order to be able to make product information available to them at timely moments. A lot of research and effort is going into this effort. And that's generally true. But the real danger is that unscrupulous people, such as criminals may indeed want to identify you, and then there is a real problem.

Some safeguards can be taken - cookie software, wiping our browser files after each use, shielding IP addresses, etc. But a lot of people don't do these things, and in any event, the technology for identification is getting more sophisticated. it could mean the end of privacy for good. for more on this theme, see this article.