Online Privacy Protection: Privacy Seals, Government Regulations and Technological Solutions

The state of privacy in the 21st century is a worldwide concern, given the Internet‘s global reach. The privacy violation on the internet is a significant problem and internet users have a right to adequate privacy. New e-business technologies have increased the ability of online merchants to collect, monitor, target, profile, and even sell personal information about consumers to third parties. Governments, business houses and employers collect data and monitor people, but their practices often threaten an individual‘s privacy. Because vast amount of data can be collected on the Internet and due to global ramifications, citizens worldwide have expressed concerns over increasing cases of privacy violations. Several privacy groups, all around the world, have joined hands to give a boost to privacy movement. Consumer privacy, therefore, has attracted the widespread attention of regulators across the globe. With the European Directive already in force, ―trust seals‖ and ―government regulations‖ are the two leading forces pushing for more privacy disclosures. Of course, privacy laws vary throughout the globe but, unfortunately, it has turned out to be the subject of legal contention between the European Union and the United States. The EU has adopted very strict laws to protect its citizens‘ privacy, in sharp contrast, to ‗laxattitude‘ and ‗self-regulated‘ law of the US. For corporations that collect and use personal information, now ignoring privacy legislative and regulatory warning signs can prove to be a costly mistake. An attempt has been made in this paper to summarize the privacy legislation prevalent in Australia, Canada, the US, the EU, India, Japan, Hong Kong, Malaysia and Singapore. It is expected that a growing number of countries will adopt privacy laws to foster e-commerce. Accountability for privacy and personal data protection needs to be a joint effort among governments, privacy commissioners, organizations and individuals themselves. Technology has always had the power to fundamentally transform any society‘s way of life. Information gathering on the Web is pervasive in large part because usage tracking and data-mining technology are deeply integrated into most Web software systems, such as tools for building online storefronts. In contrast, tools for managing data privacy are uncommon. This makes addressing user and legislative privacy concerns difficult and costly. Nevertheless, many technologies offer ways to help protect personal privacy on the Web and beyond. We focus here on emerging technologies that may become core features of future information systems and Web infrastructures. Privacy in the age of technology is quickly becoming a paradox. Privacy professionals, regulators and organizations need to work together to innovate new approaches that entrench privacy as a standard rather than an anomaly. Thus, emerging technologies can protect privacy without restricting the information flow crucial to efficient organizations.