The History Of Security Comparisons

Published Date: 02 Nov 2017

Casundra Amos

Security Comparisons

Walden University

The two sites I have chosen to do a security comparison on are Half.com and CafeMom.com. For both sites privacy and security is a top priority because they have millions of users from around the world. Websites that require a person or a business to input their private and personal information must be able to protect that persons or business data from being stolen.

Users of this site are in the millions and consist of users from around the world. These users can be students, teachers, businesses, Half.com collects a variety of different types of information when a user joins their site. Some of the data collected are credit card numbers, bank account numbers, physical contact information depending on what type of service you will be requiring at the time of joining, email addresses, names, and mobile telephone numbers or residential phone numbers. Half.com also may request additional information from third parties such as demographic and navigation data, credit check information, and any additional information about a user from a credit bureau as permitted by the laws. From users being on the site and using it Half.com may also gather interaction information such as device ID, geography location, device type, your computer and connection type, traffic, ad data, IP addresses and web log information (Privacy Policy, 2012).

Some of the people who might want to access the user’s information are mainly third party sites like Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus, and Linked. For legal purposes, Half.com has the right to share your personal information with eBay Inc., legal companies working on fraud investigations, bill collection, site operations, credit cards that are co-branded, law enforcement and government agencies, credit bureaus, eBay VeRO Program, and affiliate and rewards programs (Privacy Policy, 2012).

Half.com will never release any information about a user that they collect. This privacy is covered in the eBay Privacy Policy. All the subsidiaries of Half.com and the external and internal partners operate under similar privacy practices also describe in the same Privacy Policy. Half.com uses the industry standard practice to make sure all their user information is safeguarded against any possible theft. Their security involves firewalls and secures socket layers. Half.com treats all their users private and personal information as an asset that must be protected against possible loss and unauthorized access. Half.com does realize "perfect security" does not exist on any website. Half.com also uses cookies but never any spam, spy, or spoofing (Privacy Policy, 2012).

Cafemom.com is a great site that I am a member of. It provides a place where moms can come and connect with each other, give and get great advice, make lots of friends and be entertained. Users of this site are from many different backgrounds and places. Users consist of

Cafemom.com also uses the Privacy Policy which explains how they operate.

Information collected by Cafemom.com from users is names, date of birth, zip codes and email addresses. They also collect information based on a user’s activity on the site. They collect information through surveys, sweepstakes, games and a variety of other promotions. Cafemom.com collects a user’s information from third parties, data services, and verification services. Cafemom.com also uses cookies, weblogs, web beacons and widgets (Cafemom.com, 2012). Other information obtained are IP addresses, browser you are using, OS and computer you are using, and cell phone network you are using.

Cafemom.com can share your information with third parties. You can authorize Cafemom.com to share your information with sites like Facebook and Twitter. For legal purposes Cafemom.com can share your information courts, investigations, and violations that seem to be illegal. There are multiple levels of security that Cafemom.com uses such as firewalls, data encryption, software and hardware security, and private networks whose purpose is to protect a user’s identifiable information from unauthorized access (Cafemom.com, 2012). As with all sites, Cafemom.com admits it is impossible to have a 100% secured system but they take every measure to do the best to protect their user’s private and personal information. They also offer a waiver for users to read and understand.

After careful reading and studying both sites, I have determined that Cafemom.com offers a better secure environment than Half.com. Even though they follow the same Privacy Act, their security is quite different in some ways and in other ways they are different. I did not notice a waiver on the half.com site. On the Cafemom.com site they offer security for children’s privacy. Both sites are well aware that no website is 100% safe from being hacked.