Western Civilization, for all its glamor and splendor, is not a very responsible consumer. In America in particular we are quick to purchase and worry little for buyer’s remorse.
Our habits on the internet are really not very different from our spending habits. Studies show that a great deal of the working stiffs in America whittle away an hour or more a day while surfing around online.
Social networking takes a huge chunk out of each day and recently experts have tagged sites like Facebook as the most notorious places on the web to catch a virus. For some, however, viruses aren’t really even the issue.
Developers at Mozilla, for instance, have become increasingly anxious over the lax habits most internet surfers display toward internet privacy. Often without realizing it we are sharing loads of our personal information with advertisers and with law enforcement. Some sites share every detail, every update. Others keep a tight lid on their data and a strong majority are a mix.
And while the rules are often spelled out in black and white, they are also absurdly long and complex. Most of us click “I agree” without ever reading the first word. For that reason the Mozilla crew put together some easy-to-understand icons they are hoping will someday be mandatory for web pages.
The icons are four circles including simple representations of the internet user, advertisers represented as AD, and law enforcement officials.
The first circle represents web sites where your information is never shared with advertisers. The second symbol shows that your data will be shared with advertisers. A third represents sites where your information will not be shared with law enforcement unless due to proper legal process. The fourth and final symbol will issue a warning to visitors that these sites may give your data to law enforcement even without legal processes.
