THE results of the Caribbean Broadband and ICT Indicators Survey on 2,200 households and individuals, conducted by Professor Hopeton Dunn through the Mona School of Business between November 2010 and January 2011, showed that 38 per cent of Jamaicans used the Internet daily and 71.7 per cent of overall Internet users were visitors of social media websites. These figures continue to grow due to the push towards universal access and computer literacy, but this growth also brings concern for user privacy.

Every user who accesses the Internet has a unique virtual user profile which constantly communicates with the Internet browser and third party affiliates. This profile contains specific information which is gathered automatically once a user has connected and is able to distinguish one user from the other. It operates as a shadow component of that user’s activities and provides mostly technical data to identify the user including the browser type and operating system, an Internet Protocol (IP) address which may be fixed or temporary depending on the method used to connect to the Internet, and information on the page which referred the user to that website. The IP address is provided to the user through the Internet service provider and is therefore linked to the location of that provider. This is the reason why advertisement banners on websites, especially social media websites, can cater directly to a user’s geographical location by offering goods and services in that country/region. This “geo-tagging” feature is an incentive for advertisers to pay that website for the ad space, while users are able to surf and use the features of that website, usually free of cost.

An extensive page of legal terms known as a Privacy Policy, which outlines a website’s collection and use of user data, will generally restrict the availability of user information to that website and its registered affiliates. Most websites, however, constantly encourage users to create and update profiles in order to gain access to goods or services, such as website usage, newsletters, items for purchase, or participation in blogging activities. Social media websites are examples of situations where users deliberately load and share information under a unique user profile. Each user would have created a profile, usually with pictures, videos, status updates, and articles for the enjoyment of friends and family in their network. As the user is updating a social media user profile, the virtual user profile operating in the background is gathering this information as well, making that user more unique and identifiable. However, by “tagging” other users to the information shared, their own virtual user profiles are gathering the data, also making them more identifiable and exposed to cybercrime.

The true principle behind online privacy is that the Internet can only use what is made available for its use. Social media websites will set as default any settings which will encourage sharing and entertainment for their members. However, each member has the sole authority to change these settings to fit their own preferences, including restricting automatic acceptance of tags and other third party interferences. Users should regularly make checks on their name online to ensure that their online activities have remained private and that no one else has utilised their name or profile for unauthorized reasons. The fact that a search of one’s own name can, in a split second, consolidate years of data on that person displays the Internet’s ability to gather and categorise all data available on a certain search term. Without privacy settings blocking accessibility to this information, it is possible to ascertain personal information including date of birth, place of work, occupation, friends and relatives. By properly customising privacy settings and becoming aware of the terms in the Privacy Policy, any Internet user can easily control how much of that information is available for public viewing.

Marissa Longsworth is an Attorney-at-Law at the Kingston-based business law firm Cheeks & Co. To contact Marissa please do so via email to clientsupport@cheeks-co.com