Many people put their personal information online (address, telephone number, and so on) for purposes such as signing up for social networks or online banking. Is this a positive or negative development?

Welcome to the Internet age. A new world of technology where a significant number of individuals share their private data such as where they live, mobile contact, and their date of birth just to have access to some social media websites and Internet banking. In my opinion, this tendency has both positive and negative implications. On the one hand, this new platform of sharing information with people via the web or organizations such as the bank provides comfort and accessibility to people. In other words, it becomes easier to make transactions from the ones home, thus saving time and energy that would have been spent going to the bank or visiting a friend. For instance, I no longer have to go to my financial institution to deposit a check because I have already shared my data with the bank to authorize my checks. Hence, giving me more time to do other important things during the day. On the other hand, identity theft has been on the rise since people started putting their personal details online. That is to say, criminals are now getting easy access to steal from people once they get these details. They can obtain this information from websites and just pretend to be someone else while committing a crime. To illustrate this point, the Nigerian police force arrested a young man who suspected of scamming an American man after tracking his phone and web address, but only to discover later that someone else was using his details after he lost his phone several weeks earlier. Thus one needs to be extra cautious with devices that have these details In conclusion, although one cannot negate the benefit that comes with sharing information, the adverse effect that comes with it can be very devastating and one needs to be careful when sharing.