Online Data Collection and Personal Privacy-a Review of the Literature

Privacy in this era is threatened by the growth in technology with capacity that is enhanced for surveillance, storage, communication as well as computation. Moreover, the increased value of this information in decision making is one of the insidious threats. For this reason, information and its privacy are actually threatened and less privacy is assured.

Imagine, that you come back from a hard day’s work. You put on your favorite grey sweats with a cozy sweater. Soon after, you get a cup of hot chocolate with marshmallows. Then you lean back on the sofa, turn on the television and change the channel to the local news. Breaking news with bright red letters are plastered across the screen. The news anchor goes on explaining that an employee at the local hospital accidentally donated data of patients. This means that patient’s social security numbers, addresses, medical records, and other personal information, were given away without patients’ permission or consent. At that moment you realize that all your personal information is out there for everyone to see and use; and there is nothing you can do about it. The collection of personal information is called data mining, and is collected through large online databases. The real question is that data mining violating our privacy and rights? Why are companies still collecting our personal information without our consent and how can we protect ourselves from breaches? Data mining should be limited in the United States and needs to undergo more appropriate privacy and security policies to protect citizens privacy.

Privacy, a term that is reluctant in today’s modernized society who’s meaning is far from realistic. As the world congruently fosters a new way of living, through technology our lives as we know as our own is far from it. This paper will discuss the use of technology to research ones private information, the advantages and disadvantages of the public access of such information and the laws that promulgate such data.

Over the past few years, the development of the Internet and the intrusive surveillance capabilities of these technologies have caused privacy to become a major political and social issue for millions of Americans who go online.  Companies employ a variety of tools to gather marketable information on American citizens.  Most of the use of this information is for personalized advertisement and to create databases of target audiences.  While these activities may appear to be nothing more than annoyances for a majority of Americans, there is the hidden danger of the loss of privacy.

throughout the years, many people have thought the question, should governments and banks have the right to collect and sell private citizens' data? There have been many thoughts and perspectives on this. Some people believe that the government has the right to gather and distribute our personal information, and others firmly think the opposite, that it is an infringement on our personal privacy. The two articles have both the positives and the negatives of this idea, but are written in contrasting views. The first article, by David Sirota, "In These Times", mostly focuses on how it is the duty of the government to survey us, not only for our safety but for others safety also. The second article, from RT, sees things on the more negative

Technology is evolving every day and as technology is growing so are the threats to the loss of confidentiality or privacy of individuals’ personal information which is stored in federal IT systems and databases. This white paper addresses an overview of privacy, the content required in a Privacy Impact Assessments for a federal IT system. In addition, this white paper addresses how the content of Privacy Impact Assessments is or can be used by privacy advocates and members of the public to influence public policy and policy makers. Finally, it discusses best practices and recommendations implemented to improve privacy of personally identifiable information in the context of federal

There is a concern about many users privacy worldwide. Technology is constantly upgrading and internet is being used daily worldwide. Laws are constantly changing and there are many concerns about this. In this essay, I will be talking about why

[2] Since then there have been occurrences involving governmental agencies, software applications, and social media information gathering about personal information without consent. Privacy is still a new concept for Americans and will continue to evolve with technology, as well as other aspects of

Many of us think that we are living in a state of safe technology where no one is following you when you are online shopping, going on your social media pages, such as Facebook, or searching for online travel deals. How can a customer protect their privacy? “Mapping, and Sharing, the Consumer Genome” written by Natasha Singer, will tell us how the digital marketer provides sensitive information such as age, gender, race, ethnicity, interests, place of residence and purchases, and how it is being used, along with the concerns the consumers will face (Singer, 2012). The author proved her points based on her research, interviews and an expert opinion on a particular company called “Acxiom Corporation.”

Privacy has become a very important issue, especially when

The concern about privacy on the Internet is increasingly becoming an issue of international dispute. ?Citizens are becoming concerned that the most intimate details of their daily lives are being monitored, searched and recorded.? (www.britannica.com) 81% of Net users are concerned about threats to their privacy while online. The greatest threat to privacy comes from the construction of e-commerce alone, and not from state agents. E-commerce is structured on the copy and trade of intimate personal information and therefore, a threat to privacy on the Internet.

Privacy either encourages or is a necessary factor of human securities and fundamental value such as human embarrassment, independence, distinctiveness, freedom, and public affection. Being completely subject to mutual scrutiny will begin to lose self-respect, independence, distinctiveness, and freedom as a result of the sometimes strong burden to conform to public outlooks.

Privacy is a very touchy subject these days and the knife seems to cut both ways when it comes to who should know what, and when they should know it. On one hand, the privacy of consumer information becomes a bigger concern every day as companies are hacked and information is stolen. There are laws that mandate what companies must to in order to protect this information but I also feel that organizations have their own internal obligation to do what’s right for

Personal privacy today is a controversial and complex topic, which is influenced by a number of factors. There is an integral role that databases play in this highly debated topic. The fact that many people now carry out their transactions electronically is another important factor. There is also pressure on personal privacy for increased national security around the world to combat terrorism. In addition, personal privacy is even threatened by commercial factors and the Internet.

Privacy concerns on the web have become an undesirable consequence that people face with cyber technology. The ability of computers to gather and store unlimited amount of information from the internet raises privacy issues concerning an individual’s informational privacy. A person’s right to informational privacy is the ability to control the flow of their personal information, including the transfer and exchange of that information. An invasion of informational privacy denies people the right to control who accesses their personal information. Many internet users are unaware that they are more likely to compromise their privacy when using the internet services such as search engines and social networking sites. The internet provides access to an incredible amount of information from all over the world. Some internet users use the internet exclusively as a source of information while other internet users use the internet to create and disseminate information for others to use. However, the vast amount of information floating on the internet would not