Internet crime is one of the fastest and most profitable crimes on the market. Over 90% of Fraud, ID Theft, and Scams now start on the Internet. One method that internet criminals and hackers use to obtain personal and financial information is software that track and record every move you make on the computer.



This information includes the words that you type, the pages you visit, and even the data from contained on your hard drive. The data is transferred from your computer to the criminal's hard drive.

In order to increase our awareness of this issue we must consider the technology that is currently available. We must also look at who is using it and for what reasons the privacy invader is invading ones privacy.

Governments, companies, and criminals store and track your information via the internet. This is done for several reasons. The government may claim that it is for the protection of the people and to help stop terrorism. The truth to the matter is that all information is tracked for two reasons. Money and Power!

Microsoft has programs within the Vista and XP operating systems that are integrated within the operating system. The Key Mon is one example. It tracks virtually everything that is typed on your keyboard!! Many smart computer users have discovered how to delete this program from the system registry.

Hackers and internet criminals often create similar programs. They then attempt to install them on the victim's computer simply by using a link or a visited website. This information they obtain is then used for identity theft, blackmail, and many other devious tasks.

The government also uses programs and the recorded information to "look for terrorist activity." The tracked data is mined by robots that search user activity over the internet. We will not get into the subject of the governments rights to invade ones privacy. It is way beyond the discussion of this article.

Companies track your personal and financial information for two key reasons. First of all, companies can store your information and legally sell it to other companies for the purposes of marketing, advertising, or investigation. Unfortunately some of the largest consumer data companies have stored financial data for nearly every citizen in the US. Hackers have made several attempts to access this information for financial fraud. They have made one such successful attempt where they acquired over 200,000 social security numbers.

In order to learn how to stop this invasion of our privacy, we must first understand what it can do and how it works. We must understand the motives for this privacy invasion. We must also keep in mind that there are very few laws to protect our privacy over the internet!!