Encyclopedia of Computer Science and Technology

384 procedures and functionsagencies. Later, federal laws have attempted to address particulartypes of information, including school records, medicalrecords, and video rentals.However, much of the information collected from peopleresults from commercial transactions or other interactionswith businesses, particularly via the Internet. Althoughencrypted processing systems have reduced the chance thata credit card number submitted to a store will be stolen, socalledidentity thieves may be able to obtain credit reportsunder false pretenses or collect enough information abouta person from various databases (including Social Securitynumbers). With that information, the thief can take outcredit cards in the person’s name and run up huge bills (seeidentity theft and phishing and spoofing). While thedirect financial liability from identity theft is capped, thepsychological impact and the effort required for victims torehabilitate their credit standing can be considerable. In afew cases the same techniques have been used by stalkers,sometimes with tragic consequences.The ability of Web sites to track where a visitor clicksby means of small files called “cookies” has also disturbedmany people (see cookies). As with the recording ofpurchase information by supermarkets and other stores,businesses justify the practice as allowing for targetedmarketing that can provide consumers with informationlikely to be of interest to them. (Many e-mail addresses arealso gathered to be sold for use for unsolicited e-mail—seespam.) An even more intrusive technique involves the surreptitiousinstallation of software on the user’s computerfor purposes of displaying advertising content or gatheringinformation. In turn, programmers have distributed freeutilities for identifying and removing such “adware” or“spyware.”While such consumer tracking is not as dangerous asidentity theft, it feels like an invasion of privacy to manypeople as well as a source of insecurity, particularly becausethere are as yet few regulations governing such practices.However, in response to such concerns many businesseshave put “privacy statements” on their Web sites, explainingwhat information about visitors will be collected andhow it may be used. Businesses that meet standards for disclosureof their privacy practices can also display the seal ofapproval of organizations such as TRUSTe.Many privacy advocates, however, believe that self-regulationis not sufficient to truly protect consumer privacy.They support strong new regulations, including “optin”provisions that would require businesses to receiveexplicit permission from the consumer before collectinginformation.Privacy and Pervasive ComputingBeyond the Web and e-commerce, new challenges to privacyare emerging (see ubiquitous computing). In themovie Minority Report, stores instantly mine data aboutapproaching consumers and project personalized holographicads in front of their eyes. While that technologyis happily not here yet, many of the component piecesare (see data mining and RFID). Add global positioning(GPS) tracking to the mix, and another important partof privacy is threatened: “locational privacy.” Certainlyone can envisage situations where knowing not only whosomeone is but where they are can increase vulnerabilityto abuse.In response to these pervasive threats to privacy, manyadvocates continue to push for regulation of data gatheringand ways to hold people legally responsible for misuse ofpersonal information. However, some writers such as sciencefiction writer and futurist David Brin argue that thebattle for privacy is already lost, but the battle for transparencyand mutual accountability may still be won—if thewatched can watch the watchers.Further ReadingBrin, David. The Transparent Society. Reading, Mass.: Addison-Wesley, 1998.Cate, Fred H. Privacy in the Information Age. Washington, D.C.:Brookings Institution, 1997.Electronic Frontier Foundation. Available online. URL: http://www.eff.org. Accessed August 17, 2007.Electronic Privacy Information Center. Available online. URL:http://www.epic.org. Accessed August 17, 2007.Henderson, Harry. Privacy in the Information Age (Library in aBook). 2nd ed. New York: Facts On File, 2006.Hunter, Richard. World without Secrets: Business, Crime and Privacyin the Age of Ubiquitous Computing. New York: Wiley2002.Monmonier, Mark. Spying with Maps: Surveillance Technologies andthe Future of Privacy. Chicago: University of Chicago Press,2002.Solove, Daniel. The Digital Person: Technology and Privacy in theInformation Age. Rev. ed. New York: NYU Press, 2006.procedures and functionsFrom the earliest days of programming, programmers andlanguage designers realized that it would be very useful toorganize programs so that each task to be performed by theprogram had its own discrete section of code. After all, a programwill often have to perform the same task, such as sortingor printing data, at several different points in its processing.Instead of writing out the necessary code instructions eachtime they are needed, why not write the instructions just onceand have a mechanism by which they can be called upon asneeded? Such callable program sections have been known asprocedures, subroutines, or subprograms.The simplest sort of subroutine is found in assembly languagesand early versions of BASIC or FORTRAN. In BASIC,for example, a GOSUB statement contains a line number.When the statement is encountered, execution “jumps” tothe statement with that line number, and continues fromthere until a statement such as RETURN is encountered.For example:10 TOTAL = 1020 GOSUB 4030 END40 PRINT “The total is: ”;50 PRINT TOTAL60 RETURN