Internet Privacy

In my opinion, my privacy when accessing the internet differs depending on where I am.   It’s obvious that I am not going to have the same privacy at home than I would at work.   In my work setting, our compliance officers are on patrol for any employees that are accessing inappropriate websites or “misusing company resources”.   Some websites are even blocked so that employees do not access certain information that would compromise federal laws and regulations.   For example, I work for UOP and I know that certain financial aid websites are restricted to employees because of the risk of federal regulations being compromised.   Employees have access to social security numbers and other personal information.   If certain rules and laws are violated then we could be in jeopardy of losing our federal financial aid funding.   When I am at home surfing the internet I do not have to worry about who is watching or monitoring my web activity.   Being at an internet café, or other Wi-Fi spot, would make me nervous about who is able to access and view my information.   There are so many different ways that thieves could access your information and use it for illegal activity.   I’m not sure if it is legal to use your neighbor’s wireless connection, but it seems like it would constitute stealing.   I personally would rather use my own secure connection to access the internet just because of the amount of personal information that could be accessed by an unsecure connection.   In my opinion, it is unethical to use a neighbor’s internet connection.   It is not being paid for by me so it should not be used by me.