How the Internet

Views You

I

f you want to avoid a pickpocket in a
crowded marketplace, it helps to know that
the world has such things as pickpockets, that
they hang out in crowded marketplaces, that
they use certain tactics, and that they want to
steal money and other valuables from you
(hence, you know which pocket to protect).

The online analogy (you knew there’d be one)
is that you have to understand what types of
activities go on online, what you have that has
value, who wants it, and how companies and
individuals use what they take. We explore
these things in this chapter, and when you
understand them, you’re much better able to
traverse the online world with your finances,
privacy, and reputation intact.

Understand the Online

Financial Model

In the early days of the consumer-based Internet
(about 1995 or so), some Web companies set
about selling subscriptions to their sites. You
would pay $29.95 a year to subscribe to AOL,
for example, for which you got an Internet con-
nection and this large portal of news, an e-mail
account, access to chat rooms, and so on.

2

In this chapter...

➟Understand the Online

Financial Model ..................23

➟What Information Do Others

Want, and Why? ................25

➟How Posted Information May

Be Used against You ............26

➟Set Boundaries for Information

Exposure ............................27

➟How Web Sites Use

Demographics ....................29

➟How Search Engines Use Your

Information ........................31

➟Understand Terms and

Conditions ..........................32

➟Quizzes and Surveys ..........34

➟Protect Yourself ....................36

➟

Chapter