Lessons
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Privacy Issues
The growth and popularity of the Internet has come with concerns about personal privacy. Using the Internet is not as anonymous as it might seem. Here are are list of issues that you as a web developer and as a user of the Internet need to be aware of. Knowing about these issues will help make you safer online as well as a better developer, in terms of what you shouldn't have on your site.
Protect yourself by limiting the personal information you give a website. It is also highly suggested that you read a websites privacy policy to see what they will do with your information. you can also:
Online Profiling
As mentioned, surfing the web is not anonymous. Websites collect data about the users that visit their sites. They create a profile of you when you visit their site. They do it for marketing reasons. They use methods such as cookies and web beacons. Many times they do this without your permission of knowledge.
Web Beacons
Web beacons are small transparent graphics on a web page or in e-mails that are used with cookies to collect data about users. You don't know that they are there as they are transparent and extremely small. They collect your IP Address, URL of sites visited, time visited, web page viewed, type of browser you use, and create a cookie file. Turning off the browser's cookies will prevent Web beacons from tracking the user's activity however, most websites won't let you log in if you have cookies turned off.
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