Unregulated Data Mining Undermines Privacy Rights

One of the biggest concerns in the United States of America today is privacy. For its citizens, this concern is due mostly in part to new developments in technology and big data collection. Yes, this technology and data collection is beneficial for American citizens and is a step in the right direction for humankind, but to what extent? The CQ Researcher article titled, “Big Data and Privacy” by Tom Price answers just that question. More specifically, a monumental factor for technological advancement this article explains is the use of personal information by the producers of new technology and the collection of big data in this day in age. What makes this debate on the violation of privacy through the use personal information by businesses, as well as, the general population, is that big data collection is the staple of technological advancement and serves as a convenience for Americans. Although big data collection and technology serves as an extreme benefit in relation to convenience and societal advancement for those who use and consume it, how far will scientists, researchers, businesses, and the government push before it becomes a violation our privacy as citizens of the United States of America?

These extremely large data sets may be analyzed computationally to reveal patterns, trends, and associations relating to human behavior and interaction. These analysesaffect us on day to day basis positively and negatively and the legality of how this information is collected and the laws that apply may be unclear. Both with or without users' knowledge, consumer personal data is collected from every daily, digital activity; from purchases, web searches, amazon searches, browsing history, and phone use. This data is generated, and then downloaded and stored. [15] Companies can then use this data to create "data sets" or large files of users' data to produce customer profiling. This data can also be used by police, the governmental bodies, scientists, businesses, military, and other industries where occasional breaches of data are expected .[16] Breaches and leaks of personal information including phone calls, credit card information, home address, and personal phone numbers are examples of information that is logged and stored by these corporations while making "data sets". Much of this information is being processed and sold to marketers for the purpose of marketing their products. This information is stored digitally and in some cases, regardless of the security of the information being stored, there are risks of unauthorized parties

In “Privacy under Attack,” the authors discuss some potential ways of how our privacy could be in danger or stolen by companies or accessible by administration and corporations. According to the authors, some ways that our privacy could be in danger are first through video records and picture taken by traffic cameras and surveillance cameras for us. Second through illegal “wiretaps” by the government that could hear our conversations. Third, our privacy and personal data could be “monitored by corporations through the role of club cards, raffles, or refunds that outside companies’ collection of data about us can then be sold without noticing, given consumers the optional to search for the box on any frame to indicate they don’t want their personal

Although technology has provided tools to enhance our capabilities in things such as finding a missing person, solving murder cases based on technological assets etc.., this technology also leaves us vulnerable in many ways to slowly losing our privacy (Burten, C., 2012).

America was founded of the ideals of free speech and equality, but if one tries to exercise these rights to the fullest extent, one’s privacy would be jeopardized. The purpose

Crawford and Schultz (2014) summarized Big Data as “a generalized, imprecise term that refers to the use of large data sets in data science and predictive analytics (p. 96). The various sources of retrieving and generating information has expanded and exposed its vulnerability, especially to health data. A single breach holds risks of sharing critical information from a multitude of patients’ records. Predictive privacy harms, which are collected information that centers on individual data behaviors, have the potential to sidestep existing antidiscrimination regulations, but also lead to privacy breaches in healthcare (Crawford & Schultz, 2014). In the U.S. Supreme Court decision in United States v. Jones there were concerns expressed about invasions of privacy that could result in direct collection of large amounts of personal information through Global Position System (GPS) monitoring. This type of governmental power is vulnerable to abuse, endangerment of privacy rights of citizens, and weaken trust in the government (Crawford & Schultz, 2014). Crawford and Schultz (2014) state that John Locke and William Blackstone defined liberty, as it pertains to an individual, as an “unabridged natural right follow his or her own will”. (p.111) In a sense, if an individual believes privacy fits the bill, then it should be respected and left alone. Big Data faces many obstacles when it comes to the topic of privacy. The question of how to correctly respond to each challenge may vary, but success can come if both just and achievable protections are present for those at risk for this type of

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.

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

In today’s society, the word “privacy” has become ubiquitous. When discussing whether government surveillance and data collection pose a threat to privacy, the most common retort against privacy advocates – by those in favor of databases, video surveillance, spyware, data mining and other modern surveillance measures – is this line: "If I’m not doing anything wrong, what would I have to hide?" The allowance of the government’s gathering and analysis of our personal information stems from an inadequate definition of what privacy is and the eternal value that privacy possesses. The adherents of the “nothing-to-hide” argument say that because the information will never be disclosed to the public, the “privacy interest is minimal, and the security interest in preventing terrorism is much more important.” 1 In an era where the patterns we leave behind will inevitably become the focus for whatever authority, the issue of privacy affects more than just individuals hiding a wrong. In this essay, I will explore the state of online privacy in wake of the government’s warrantless data collection. Respectively, the nothing-to-hide argument and its key variants in more depth.

However, the customers are the weaker side when they compete with the corporations. People have to spend so much time on privacy policies provided by the corporations, which most of the time do not match with the actual practice. Even more important is that the customers are not fully aware the action and the danger of data collection. Many people believe that the data collection would do no harm to them, and adversely it could become a mutual benefit as the corporations provide better service. However, it is not that simple. All of customers’ information is linked to people’s privacy. This collection could generate far-reaching effects, especially related to our lifestyles or sensitive medical histories. Samuel Greengard, the author of “Advertising Gets Personal”, writes about how data collection influences our lives. For example, the prospected employer may refuse to hire a person according to their medical record or personal lifestyle. It may lead to the exposition of all of the privacy (Greengard

“Tracking Is an Assault on Liberty” is an essay written by Nicholas Carr in 2010 in the Wall Street Journal. He said that there are chances that, “our personal data will fall into the wrong hands” (Carr 438). It means that people’s personal information might drop under the hands of hackers, data aggressors, and stalkers. In addition, Carr believes that “personal information may be used to influence our behavior and even our thoughts in ways that are invisible to us” (Carr 439). It means that the data aggressors misuse people’s information in opposite way or in a wrong way. For example, data aggressors steal the people’s personal information and use that information for their own benefits. Therefore, Carr believes that government should regulate the internet. Unlike Carr, Harper believes that people are responsible for their own information. They should be aware and concerned about potential dangers of posting their personal information on the internet. However, it’s people duty to be aware of its consequences before posting any of their personal

With the increased and widespread use of technologies, interest in data mining has increased rapidly. Companies are now utilized data mining techniques to exam their database looking for trends, relationships, and outcomes to enhance their overall operations and discover new patterns that may allow them to better serve their customers. Data mining provides numerous benefits to businesses, government, society as well as individual persons. However, like many technologies, there are negative things that caused by data mining such as invasion of privacy right. This paper tries to explore the advantages as well as the disadvantages of data mining. In addition, the ethical and global issues regarding the use of data mining

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.

In the United States data privacy is not highly regulated or legislated, for instance, the Health, and Information Portability and Accountability Act of 1996 (HIPPA), the Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act of 1998 (COPPA), and the Fair and Accurate Credit Transactions Act of 2003 (FACTA) are indicators of how the United States federal laws tend to favor