Book Review
I Love the Internet but I Want My Privacy , Too!
INLS 187: Information Security
Allyson Silver
Assignment 5
Due May 5, 2003
Bibliographic Information:Peterson, Chris, I Love the Internet But I Want My Privacy, Too!. Rocklin, CA: Prima Publishing, 1998.
Book Review: The book that I read for the Book Review assignment is I Love the Internet, But I Want My Privacy, Too!. I really enjoyed reading this book, although at first, I was worried that it may be a little to elementary. The book discusses exactly how our privacy is violated and made accessible as we surf the internet, regardless of if we are casual or daily users of the Internet. I learned quite a bit about privacy and Internet issues, as well as preventative measures that can be taken in suck situations. I thought it was interesting how the issue of privacy violations has emerged from the "Big Brother" controversy with the government to concern of privacy being hacked and stolen by data companies, credit bureaus, and everyday internet criminals who are looking to hack into systems and obtain private information.
I really was interested in the Chapter on medical records, as I feel that this is a very private source of information to which no one should have access. However, this is not the case, as everyone's medical records are slowly becoming Electronic Medical Records or EMR's (page 79). It was reassuring though to know that one's personal physician is the final "guardian" of the medical documents, and that one must trust and be confident that he/she will safely protect you records.
Overall, this book is about how easily your personal information is displayed to other users, and it also offers ways for people to protect their information. Additionally, this book offers a very good chapter on ways to protect children from being violated while using the Internet. Finally, it discusses ways that the government is being pressured by the people to enforce laws and regulations to protect their privacy and confidential information from being spread over the Internet.
I think that this book is geared towards people who use the internet, but who may not be computer literate or very technologically educated. Throughout the book there are "Personal Privacy Profiles", which are exercises to develop a profile on exactly what information about you is accessible on the Web. The steps to create this profile are highly elementary, and could be followed by almost anyone who read this book. I think that anyone who has used the Internet would be able to follow along fairly easily with this book.
I Love the Internet is a practical book that gives real and vivid examples of everything that it discusses. We are able to read about everyday examples and web pages that we can see for ourselves. I think that this is good because it helps us apply the book to our own Internet usage. Additionally, I think that the layout of the book makes it easy to read. The chapters are all pretty short and broken down into sections.
Critique of BookOverall, I think that this book successfully reaches its intended audience and achieves its goals. I think that the main shortcoming is that a reader who is computer literate or already knows a lot about computers and the Internet might feel that the text is rather elementary or previously known. However, there were quite a few facts and discussions in the text that I was not aware of. So I think that anyone could read this book and take something from it. I think that this book would best be used by someone who is knew to the Internet or not very aware of how information is spread via the Internet. Additionally, this would be a great book for anyone who is interested in learning how to protect his/her personal information and to prevent the spread/release of this information on the Internet.