Introduction
Life in the twentieth century is unthinkable without the Internet, the biggest storage place of information. Millions of internet users upload their personal details such as pictures, bank account, etc., hoping that no-one would have access to them. However, are privacy and confidentiality compatible with the algorithms according to which the Internet functions? Today, information on the internet, or as it is called Big Data, became the biggest concern not only of Information Technology (IT) specialists, but also of governments and private users. There are hundreds of cases known about how personal information is stolen without consent of their owners. For example, in 2011 when a hacker group “Anonymous” attacked not only governmental and official websites of major companies. “Anonymous” has announced that they hacked NATO's database and they have threatened NATO by sending hidden files to the public domain (vesti.ru, 2011). These events make us think about how safe our personal information so that no one can use it?
I would like to investigate the aforementioned research question since my friend was hacked on the social network VKontakte where hackers found and used his card data. So, I wanted to know what the reasons for poor security are, how to reduce it, and also figure out how familiar people are with the potential issues of online security.
Actually, with the development of technologies, it can be stated today's securities of data become stronger. However, since news reports concern only failures of online security, my opinion regarding the safety on any website including official and governmental ones could be severely biased. To avoid prejudices and biases the information presented in this essay is to be collected from official scholar research and official international newspapers, from sources such as scholar.google.com, BBC, etc., where information is given in the most objective way.
Since my research is done in the scale of one school, I believe that my information would be useful to the students who are not familiar with the questions of Big Data ethics at all. The presented outcomes will show to students how well they are aware of what is happening with their pictures and other personal details that they upload. This will raise the awareness among students and their parents.
