Reasons of Website Privacy

We all use website for many purpose like emailing, sharing files, uploading pictures, keeping address index or phone numbers of our friends or colleagues and so on. While doing such activities online, have we ever thought of that website privacy? Most of us not aware of it and give little importance to it. Well, we (users of website) might forget this important issue but while designing a website its privacy matters, guided and implemented always.

Reasons for Website Privacy:

1.       Logically Malleability: The computer performs exactly as it is instructed by the programmer and this can be frightening. However, when the computer is used for an unethical activity it is not the computer that is the culprit. Rather, it is the person or persons behind the computer who are at fault. So, rather than fear that the computer is sometimes used in an unethical way, society should fear the persons who are directing the computer.

2.       The Transformation Factor: This reason for concern over computer ethics or website privacy is based on the fact that computers can drastically change the way we do things. We can see this transformation of duties in firms of all types. A good example is electronic mail. E-mail did not simply replace regular mail or telephone calls. It provided an entirely new means of communication. Similar transformations can be seen in how managers conduct meetings. Whereas managers once had to physically assemble in the same location, they can now meet in the form of a video conference.

3.       The Invisibility Factor:  The third reason for society’s interest in website privacy is that society views the computer as a black box. All of the computer’s internal operations are hidden from view. Invisibility of internal operations provides the opportunity for invisible programming values, invisible complex calculations, and invisible abuse.

·         Invisible programming values are those routines that the programmer codes into the program that may or may not produce the processing that the user desires. During the course of writing a program, the programmer must make a series of value judgments as to how the program should accomplish its purpose. This is not a malicious act on the part of the programmer but, rather, a lack of understanding. A good example of the impact that invisible programming values can have is the Three Mile Island nuclear disaster. The plant operators had been trained in handling emergencies by using a mathematical model. The model was designed to simulate single malfunctions occurred simultaneously. The inability of the computer to give the users what they needed was due to this invisibility factor.

·         Invisible complex calculations take the form of programs that are so complex that users do not understand them. A manager uses such a program with no idea of how it is performing its calculations.

·         Invisible abuse includes intentional acts that cross legal as well as ethical boundaries. All acts of computer crime fall into this category, as do such unethical acts as invasion of individuals’ right to privacy and surveillance.

We therefore, expect business to be guided by website privacy in order to put these concerns to rest. However, many websites hardly follow these privacy guides and misuse website members or visitors in many ways.