Information Technology Reference
In-Depth Information
How private
(or public)
are Web
interactions?
Think about the last time you worked on the World Wide Web.
What was the first thing you did after you opened your browser?
You probably began by entering the location of a Web page that
you wanted to view. Your computer then generated a request to a
Web server, and by doing so, you sent information through the
Internet. Have you ever stopped to consider what information ex
actly you've offered to the network in that brief exchange? Once the
request reaches the Web server, the server identifies your desired
page and sends the relevant information back. The lowlevel details
of this exchange followed the protocols discussed in Chapters 8, 9,
and 11, but what information was actually transmitted? How much
of your personal information was released to the Internet so that
you could view that Web page?
In some cases, Web pages ask us to enter information as part of
a transaction. The part of a Web page where we enter this informa
tion is, naturally, called a
form
. A form typically contains blank ar
eas where we can type, buttons we can select, menus from which we
can make selections, and boxes we can check. For example, when
we search the Web using such tools as yahoo.com, google.com, or
askjeeves.com, we enter words or phrases into a blank text area to
guide the search. When we order merchandise, we supply our ship
ping address and credit card information. But, in providing this in
formation, we may wonder how secure the information is as it
moves from our browser to the Web server.
319
