Do not reveal personal information inadvertently.
You may be "shedding" personal details, including e-mail addresses and other
contact information, without even knowing it unless you properly configure your
Web browser. In your browser's "Setup", "Options" or "Preferences" menus, you
may wish to use a pseudonym instead of your real name, and not enter an e-mail
address, nor provide other personally identifiable information that you don't
wish to share. When visiting a site you trust you can choose to give them your
info, in forms on their site; there is no need for your browser to potentially
make this information available to all comers. Also be on the lookout for
system-wide "Internet defaults" programs on your computer (some examples include
Window's Internet Control Panel, and MacOS's Configuration Manager, and the
third-party Mac utility named Internet Config). While they are useful for
various things, like keeping multiple Web browers and other Internet tools
consistent in how the treat downloaded files and such, they should probably also
be anonymized just like your browser itself, if they contain any fields for
personal information. Households with children may have an additional "security
problem" - have you set clear rules for your kids, so that they know not to
reveal personal information unless you OK it on a site-by-site basis?
Yvonne Garth on 30 Apr 11"business-to-consumer and business-to-business commerce conducted by way of the Internet or other electronic networks. E-commerce originated in a standard for the exchange of documents during the 1948 - 49 Berlin blockade and airlift. Various industries elaborated upon the system until the first general standard was published in 1975. The electronic data interchange (EDI) standard is unambiguous, independent of any particular machine, and flexible enough to handle most simple electronic transactions. In addition to standard forms for business-to-business transactions, e-commerce encompasses much wider activity - for example, the deployment of secure private networks (intranets) for sharing information within a company, as well as selective extensions of a company's intranet to collaborating business networks (extranets). A new form of cooperation known as a virtual company, actually a network of firms, each performing some of the processes needed to manufacture a product or deliver a service, has flourished"
