When that confidentiality may be compromised, the professor has a responsibility to inform the student of the potential compromise. To do this, the professor must be knowledgeable of the environment to which his or her students are exposed. This study and examines the degree to which personally identifiable information may be unknowingly released when students use the Internet to complete class assignments and conduct research. The data source consists of 31 online services that provide access to numerous journal articles and other information. With each service, online click through behavior is mimicked to determine the students' exposure to privacy invasion techniques, including cookies, web bugs and port scans.
Cookies are small text files that are placed on a visitor's hard drive by a web page server.
They act as a type of identification card that enables a company to recognize repeat visitors to its web site. Cookies allow companies to store not only the information provided by a URL submission, but also any additional information that a user may provide during a visit. In addition, they allow companies to track the click through behavior of visitors to their web site. Web bugs are either visible or invisible graphics that are placed on a web page by a company that is not affiliated with the web site. The company that supplies the graphic also places its cookie on the computer of the visitor to the web site.