Week 17

In this module, we will recap on viruses and worms and then finish the final assessment. Then, we will move on and explore Issues for Computer Users. This chapter will come out of the Principles of Information Technology Workbook. The chapter sections will cover Privacy Online, Cyber Crime, and how to avoid it.

The objectives for the lesson will be:

1) "Summarizing the danger of sharing personal information on the internet (Pearson, 2017).

2) " Explain how cookies and global unique identifiers endanger privacy (Pearson, 2017).

3) "Identify techniques that intruders use to attack computer systems (Pearson, 2017).

4) "Discuss different types of cyber crimes"(Pearson, 2017).

5) "Summarize how computer crimes cost businesses money" (Pearson, 2017).

Businesses all over the world gather information from customers. There are numerous ways in which this happens. For example, before you can use a website's full functionality, you have to register with the website. This is called website registration.

Online purchases also allow companies to gather information about customers, such as their names, addresses, their purchases, and when they made those purchases.

Another way that business gather information about customers is through warranty registration. Lets say that a person goes buy a large ticket item, like the new Xbox. In order to activate the warranty, he or she must register the product through the manufacture. This gives the company, in this case, Microsoft, a way to obtain personal information.

To be considered for a sweepstakes, for example, people have to enter information in an entry form, hoping that they win a prize. While the odds of winning a prize are extremely low, this is yet another avenue that companies use gather huge amounts of information.

Its no secret that social networking sites, like Facebook also gather information from peoples profiles. The information collected could contain information about where a person lives, what they like, and the "products that they use"(Pearson, 2017).

Search engines also "collect information about users search history to find out what interest them. (Pearson, 2017).

So, why is information collected? The answer is easy. Personal information that discloses users interest can then be sold to marketers, who use that information to sell services and products to customers. A database of user information can be very valuable, as it can disclose relevant information about users needed to make a sale. For example, Bobby is looking for a dog trainer. A search engine, like Google, picks up on Bobby's interest and then sends Bobby pop ups of dog trainers that advertise on the search engine.

In the past, even universities have come under a tremendous amount of pressure to stop selling their students information to credit card companies. These credit card companies then send out credit card applications to students with minimal qualification requirements. As a result, many students end up with massive amounts of credit card debt when they graduate.

References: Weixel, S. (2017). Principles of Information Technology: Preparing for IC³ certification. Pearson.