by Leigh Goessl

Created on: November 18, 2010

A few decades ago people probably would not have imagined the world as we live in today. Ever since the Internet was born, the world has been changing at a rapid rate. As a result of this technology, society is undergoing a constant transformation and has had a dramatic impact on how we exist.

Nowadays many individuals who use the Internet routinely would likely find themselves lost if they suddenly found themselves without the ability to connect.  With so many users dependent upon the Internet for personal or business reasons, the 'real' and virtual worlds have indeed collided.

While the capability to connect, retrieve and share information is amazing in terms of availability and speed, this is not to say there are not some drawbacks involved with using the Internet; there are some definite negative effects of the Internet.

• Fraud and Theft

One of the largest complaints consumers have related to the Internet is fraud and theft. In the dark corners of cyberspace lurk identity thieves, embezzlers, organized groups of cyber criminals, malware creators, copyright offenders and fraudulent businesses set up for the purpose of ripping people off.

Unfortunately these and many other cyber crimes are continuing to rise. At the top of the list are those crimes related to some sort of fraud and theft. The Internet Crime Complaint Center logged 336,655 complaints in 2009 with a $559.7 million loss. This is a significant rise from 2008; the 2010 statistics will likely be released early spring 2011.

The Internet has provided cyber criminals with the ideal environment to lie, cheat and steal for financial gain, and the fact criminals can target their victims globally doesn't make it an easy problem to solve as laws across the borders do not necessarily align and/or agree. This makes it easy for criminals to set up operations in a country (even virtually) and then attack globally.

• Privacy Concerns and Data Breaches

Privacy is another significant drawback associated with the Internet. As a good percentage of web users reside on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, and a host of other social networks, the lives of many become an open book. It is very difficult nowadays not to leave a digital footprint of some sort, even when taking extreme caution on the web.

Today's Internet is no longer the one that existed a decade ago where much activity was anonymous. Techniques such as data mining, liberal privacy policies and just a lack of awareness on the user end, lead to

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