Privacy
The interest that individuals have in sustaining a 'personal space', free from interference by other people and organizations. The issue of Internet privacy has become increasingly important over the past few years, as policymakers, industry leaders, and privacy advocates have come together to decide how to deal with the prolific collection and distribution of personal data in the electronic world. One of the most thorough privacy bills introduced in Congress, and one cited in the ACT study, is the Consumer Privacy Protection Act (S. 2606), introduced in May 2000 by Sen. Ernest Hollings, D-S.C. The bill requires Web sites to provide users access to personal information that the site has collected about them, and to allow users to "correct, delete, or supplement" that information. You can guard your online privacy on the Internet, but not every Web site takes measures to secure and keep your confidential information private. Look for evidence of such measures as you move from site to site. If you need to send confidential information and are unsure about a internet site's security, you should consider sending it by phone or by regular mail instead. Email on the Internet is not secure unless you are using a special secure email program. If any organization or individual asks you for confidential information - for instance, your social security number or a bank or credit card account number - you should check to make sure that the organization or individual needs the information in order to conduct business with you and guarantees the security of the information during transmission by using encryption to find out how you can tell if such a system is active.