FindingsTechnology has brought together cultures and societies that are geographically isolated. There has been a paradigm shift over the last few decades, where there was competition now flourishes with collaboration. Since the advent of internet, places that were isolated from each other has come into contact and works together for common good. This has been particularly evident in the business atmosphere. Workers from all over the globe now comes together via online chat rooms and virtual rooms that allow them to be present in the decision making even if they are not physically present. It has allowed foreign companies to work together and acquire a solution that came as a result of many minds, not just some executives in one room.Digital systems has evolved so much in past few decades that there has been a complete paradigm shift. This technological era can be described as an era where economic, financial and much social activities are technology based. This sudden shift from traditional ways has helped us to progress us immensely, from a simple network (ARPANET) to a sophisticated worldwide network which contains thousand times more information than the biggest library ever existed. In this day and age, gadgets and apps have made their way to our homes and offices are so much deep-rooted in our lives that we cannot visualize a day without it. Anywhere and everywhere people are occupied inside their own pocket worlds where they post their lives, preferences and whereabouts online for others to see. Technology was capable enough to catapult mankinds progress into sky high, but what has it done to our personal privacy? There had been numerous scandals involving NSA, CIA about breach of personal privacy and violation of human rights, wherein it was reported that NSA was secretly taping and acquiring any kinds of information from American citizens on a daily basis and had a surveillance program called prism built in order to spy on its residents social media networks as well. This was revealed to the public by Edward Snowden, an ex CIA systems analyst who is now facing up to 30 years in American prison. This incident has led to mass public protests against the US government and NSA and has led to society being afraid for their sense of free speech and freedom on the web. Before going into details about digital systems and privacy, it would be good to look into its impact on various backgrounds. 1) At homes: nowadays everyone has at least one communication device, be it smartphones, laptop, iPod. By the use of social networks everyones connected and they can check upon each other at any time in this busy world. The reaches of internet transcends location and time. But the same technology has also caused family members to be more distant, for example a common dinner scene these days would involve parents looking their e-mail and kids on their cell phones. The lack of communication is growing stronger within families.2) At work: as stated above, internet and networking in general has led to more efficiency in workplace. People are now able to work on a project even outside their business hours and are able to discuss it with their peers. However recent studies has showed us that being able to work 24/7 is contributing to elevated stress levels, which in the long run can lead to minimal work progress and severe health problems.Although the above two scenarios are about digital systems impacting society in general its also an outlook on how they are part of ones life 24/7 in the form of entertainment, work and other forms of online content. Spending so much time online is obviously going to leave identification of ones self on the web and this information is used to analyze that person. For example, directed ads. They learn the search tendencies from Google, Facebook, You Tube and other online social Medias and then direct related advertisements. They work by collecting cookies (bits of information on your computer that helps the browsing to be smooth and works by storing relevant information about the sites visited by user) and reading information from them. This has led to some huge privacy concerns by various users. Although there are setting which can opt out of cookie storing, its usually hidden deep among options and less computer savvy users may not find it. According to a 2011 survey conducted by Harris Interactive, over half of Internet users had a negative impression of online behavioral advertising, and forty percent feared that their personally-identifiable information had been shared with advertisers without their consent. (Source - https://www.truste.com/about-truste/press-room/news_truste_behavioral_advertising_survey_2011).

SynopsisHas technology infiltrated our personal lives? Its a question worth asking but the answer to that question is undoubtedly complicated. On one side we have digital systems helping us out in our daily lives, in the other we see our personal and secret events no longer a closed event and the feeling that we are no longer able to function well in our society without digital systems. Has the use of digital systems increased so much that they are the very quintessential part of our humanity? These are relevant questions based on whats happening all around us.

This report outlines the impact digital systems have in our personal lives. Its main purpose is to investigate whether digital impacts has had a negative or positive impact in our society and our personal privacy. Specifically CCTV cameras, recent scandals on higher authorities snooping on common residents e-mails, social media and phone calls. This report would also compare the pros and cons of the impact of digital systems on personal privacy and society. By closely examining and thoroughly researching about the topic, this report will conclude in a logical deduction and suggest some recommendations that can improve the situation if needed.

The threats of breach of personal privacy are vast and very dangerous. Some of them include:a) Identity Theftb) Sexual predatorsc) Stalkingd) Online bullying e) Surveillance

Spear phishingSpear phishing is an E-mail spoofing fraud that disguises itself to come from a trusted source. Spear phishing mainly targets specific individuals or organizations seeking unauthorized access to data. Spear phishing is mainly based on familiarity. The more the attacker know the target, the E-mail will seem more personal and one which the target would be more likely to open or respond. The information that which the attacker can use ranges from targets purchasing history to personal information from social media sites. By using these information the attacker can then manipulate the target into believing that the email comes from a trusted source.Spear phishing, although dangerous once fallen victim to, can be easily avoided. Being intelligent and aware online can weed out many scam attempts and potentially dangerous and intrusive viruses. One has to be self-aware of how much information they are outing on social media and how accessible is that data to other people. For example, posting personal transactions or locations in Facebook with minimal or nonexistent privacy settings can lead to scammers acquiring that information which they will use to spear phish. And once fallen to their trap its difficult to escape without any kind of financial or personal loss. Another step that can be taken to prevent these scams is to regularly update software and check for any newer patches. Patches are often deployed to fix any vulnerabilities in the system and when not updated, can lead to malicious files exploiting that vulnerability and send any valuable information to hackers.

WhalingWhale phishing is an e-mail or webpage scam that mainly targets the upper management of a company and powerful people to divulge company secrets and confidential data. Whale phishing scams are generally not targeted at an average user but rather at company managers, CEOs and employees who may have access keys to confidential files and relevant financial data.Whaling scams are usually designed as critical business mails sent from a legitimate business authority. Inside these mails contain key loggers, intrusive software, Trojan viruses, fake webpages that uses phishing and more. One popular method of whale phishing is to model police subpoenas, made to look similar and sending it to organizations. There have been many examples where giving crucial credentials without proper checking has led to huge financial losses. For example, the 2008 FBI subpoena attack nearly affected two thousand companies and led to millions of dollars and important documents being stolen. Identifying whale phishing is slightly more difficult than other types of phishing because how genuine they can appear to look and how easy it is for the attacker to hide a key logger or a phishing software which then can store keyboard strokes and any other activity done by the user. So it is greatly advised to check with appropriate sources to make sure that the e-mail is credible before giving the e-mail any kind of reply and should be extra cautious while downloading any files from the internet.

Romance scam Romance scam is a fraudulent trick involving foreign romantic intentions towards a target, gaining their sympathy, love and tricking them into giving huge amounts of money by manipulating those feelings. Its one of the worst scams one can fall into and has the potential to even traumatize the victim. These scams mainly target widows, senior citizens and recently divorced.Romance scams are usually done via dating sites and social networking sites. The scammer befriends the victim over something common or by offering sexual services and then proceeds to build a relation via online in which the victim and the scammer gets close. Once the scammer feels that they are close enough he or she asks money for various purposes. The victim sends the money, hoping that this would make them closer while the scammer asks for more. In the end when the victim finally realizes he or she were just a target in a fraudulent scheme, they would have lost massive amount of money and proceeds to terminate the relationship and hides it due to embarrassment. This leads to vast number of romance scams to go unreported and the scammers walking free.Best way to prevent from getting scammed is definitely being self-aware about these elaborate frauds. Stay away from people who asks for money via online and people who promise vast riches. Older citizens should especially be made aware about this as its age group 50 and above thats mostly falling for these frauds.Another good step would be to contact the authorities or family and get their attention to these scammers before its too late. Often people are embarrassed and would refrain from doing so and thats why awareness should be given, to make sure that its more important that the scammer is caught and other people dont fall in their traps.