The latest version of Internet Explorer is under fire for allegedly allowing outsiders to read a user's files. E-mail is also seen as vulnerable. Employers are often accused of monitoring employees' e-mail, and undoubtedly many do. Some have defended the practice, but privacy groups, and courts, have often disagreed. The Internet is full of websites maintained by privacy vigilantes.
Activist groups protest furiously about every breach of privacy that is uncovered.
Generally, the perpetrators apologise and promise to mend their ways, but electronic snooping is now ingrained in popular culture. More than 12 million people use the company's free RealJukebox program to listen to digital music on the Web. RealNetworks said they did not store the information, valuable though it would have been in their own, and other's, marketing. Nor is it only fine, upstanding citizens who worry about losing their privacy. Paedophiles and users of the Internet's many thousands of pornography sites, are probably more concerned to remain anonymous than the rest of us.