The key to an information-rich web is information. However, not everyone is particularly interested in having their data made available to anyone who wants it. You can probably think of many situations where data should be protected to prevent intrusions on privacy, to maintain public safety, and to protect national security. For many businesses, information is a key to their competitive position in the marketplace.

To Prepare:

• Consider the security needs of an e-commerce company, such as eBay, and those of a social networking site, such as Facebook.
• Consider who the users are, the variety of information the organization might collect (e.g., billing and demographic data; a subscriber's purchases; logs of which pages on the website a subscriber views; statistical summaries of customer attributes and activities) and who might want access to the information (e.g., requests from advertisers, list brokers, law enforcement agencies, news media, etc.).