Technology

The first technology that I can think of is cloud computing. Cloud computing in

general is for anything that involves delivering hosted services over the Internet. These would include your typical search engines like Google, BING, Yahoo or MSN. If you are registered to have an account with Facebook, Twitter, or Google+, you basic information will show up if you type in the first and last name of a personal you want to search. Pretty much any information you allow for a personal to see on your account will show up as “search results” under any of these search engines. The name cloud computing was inspired by the cloud symbol that’s often used to represent the Internet flowcharts and diagrams (Rouse, 2010).

A malicious technology that can be used to research an individual’s private data is spyware. On the Internet (where it is sometimes called a spybot or tracking software), spyware is programming that is put in someone's computer to secretly gather information about the user and relay it to advertisers or other interested parties (Rouse, Search Security , 2006). Spyware is often installed without the user's consent, as a drive-by download, or as the result of clicking some option in a deceptive pop-up window. Software designed to serve advertising, known as adware, can usually be thought of as spyware as well because it almost invariably includes components for tracking and reporting user information (Rouse, Search Security , 2006).

A technology that allows an individual to research private data is the Global Positioning System (GPS). The GPS is owned and operated by the U.S. Department of Defense but is available for general use around the world (Rouse, SearchMobileComputing, 2007). GPS equipment is widely used in science and has now become sufficiently low-cost so that almost anyone can own a GPS receiver (Rouse, SearchMobileComputing, 2007). Although GPS was originally designed for the military, its applications have extended into the public sector...