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Aimen Altaiyeb
CST 300 Writing Lab
17 October 2020

Data Collections: Is it Right?

The digital age took the world by storm. Starting out in the 1980s when the internet and

mobile devices began to emerge, it allowed great connectivity between people in a way that is

the first in human history. This revolutionized many of aspects of life such as work, social,

entertainment, medical and many more (Sigulem, 2017). So much in life has improved in this

age but unfortunately it seems like there are aspects we as a people begin to lose or value less

during such a time; one of them being privacy. Privacy is now a frequently discussed and

debated topic in the technological and now more recently in the political world because of how

hard it is to implement privacy procedures in this age. The matter is now such a hot topic that

there is now a call for movements that attempt to stop companies from collecting users’ personal

data, or at the very least stop them from selling said information from profit and further increase

protection of their data. (Feldman, 2017).

Background

The digital world, or technology in general, heavily rely on data to function. Companies

are able to develop and improve technology making them more efficient and cost less by

studying their users’ usage of their products as well as use the data to be able to target specific

people with whatever products or services that the target may be more likely to be interested in.

It is here that divide of those who are with or against privacy starts.

Many companies collect their data from their customers for a multitude of reasons but the

main motivation for collecting the data, or any action they make is to gain profit and remain

profitable for the long term which isn’t a secret nor is there anything wrong with said motivation
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(Porter, 2014). The problems arise once corporations begin to cross into a grey area that is either

hard to callout as wrong or not specifically banned by law. In cases like these the corporation

will choose to move with its main motivation being profit. A corporation can move forward in

such a manner because a corporation is not owned by any single person and there isn’t anyone

who can take full responsibility if any social or virtuous norms are broken because a CEO’s main

responsibility is to the shareholders of the company who invested in it to make money, since that

is the shareholders goal, it is unlikely they would further invest in the company even if it is doing

the right thing if it is not making them enough money and would eventually leave said company

(Jackson, 2014).

A gray area in technology begins to emerge once the topic of privacy and how to deal

with data collection is brought up which is a very complicated argument because data collection

certainly evolves faster using data collected but there are many risks to allowing companies to

collect data off their customers or people in general because of the possibility of the data being

used against the owner, stolen, or allow for people to possibly be manipulated by the same

companies that collect the data to suit their needs such as the case with what happened with

Facebook; earlier the fact that companies may break virtuous or social norms if an action was not

illegal was eluded to and this is put on full display when it was discovered that Facebook was

manipulating it’s users feeds in order to study and learn their reactions to collect data on them.

Privacy activist Lauren Weinstein even went on to say that he wonders if this manipulation killed

anyone, that if we look the scale of this manipulation and current levels of depression it may be

possible (Goel, 2014).

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Stakeholders

The main stakeholders in the matter of privacy are companies that collect data on their

customers even possibly the general public and movements and people who care about their

privacy and how their data is used. Companies that publicly use their user’s data promise that

their customers data is protected. Google mentions on one of their pages that is analyzed so that

the data cannot be traced back to you, they also list the benefits such as getting better

recommendations on YouTube as well as finding destinations on google maps (Google), other

companies such as amazon and other ecommerce based companies save address and credit card

information so that customers would not need to reenter those details again with each order they

make. Apple also asks their customers if they would like to share “Analytics” with them so that

they study their information on the device such as if errors happen or anything else unexpected

occurs so they may improve their product and implement solutions for future errors (Apple).

Facebook is able to categorize all their user into many groups and use targeted ads for

more efficient advertising, allowing advertisers the ability to specify who their advertisements

should be viewed by, users can be targeted by age, interests, geography, or other customized set

of interests so that other businesses and advertisers can reach the people who would be more

likely to be interested in what is being advertised by them. This in turn personizes each user’s

experience when using websites or online services, they may receive recommendations that

actually help them instead of seeing advertisements of products they would never consider

purchasing, not only would it improve the user experience in terms of advertisement but their

experience in using the services by said companies making it easier for them to navigate and use

their services to be used more effectively. If data collection becomes limited companies will be
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unable to improve their user experience at the pace they are maintaining right now, advertising

will also become less efficient since the advertising will become more random.

On the other hand, movements such as fightforprivacy.co are trying to emphasize how far

companies have went collecting our personal information and that it has reach the point of our

privacy has been violated by companies collecting our data and selling them without our

permission. This particular movement’s website says that even if it may be possible to privatize

your data to a great extent, it does have its price but the movement believes that privacy should

not cost anything, and that other entities should not be allowed to use people’s personal data as

they please, furthermore they should not even be allowed to sell any data related to them just

because they might’ve utilized their services before.

The movement calls for people to contact their congressman to start implementing laws

and regulations to keep the data collecting in check, and to allow the people the right to take

companies to court by being able to file a Class actions suit against them. One of the main issues

that these movements have against the companies collecting data is because of how much data

has either been breached or scandals with users’ data occur. We can look at cases such as the

Facebook’s manipulation acts or the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal which allowed the

latter company to access Facebook users and their friends data and predictions of each person’s

psychological unique traits, political sway, IQ and many other details. The company then sold

the data gathered to the Donald Trump Presidential campaign. Occurrences with data breaches

are also very frequent, a simple example is Polar, a fitness app that used by many military, secret

service and NSA personnel. Polar was discovered to have really bad private data protection and

was easily breach with personal information including the users’ names, heartbeat rates,

addresses, places of exercise including military bases in different countries most notably
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Guantanamo Bay Naval Base were all exposed (Grothaus, 2018). Privacy is becoming less

relevant during these times, people who prefer their lives to remain private will soon find it

impossible to do so because of how companies collect, keep and exchange data.

Stakeholder Positions in Ethical Frameworks

The first stakeholder, companies, seem to have benefited the society as a whole and

brought it to a new digital age and look like they are following the Common Good framework,

but the intentions and motivations for these companies greatly suggest the Egoistic

Consequentialist ethical framework, this framework focuses on self-interest. Companies main

motivation like mentioned earlier is monetary profit, both in short term and long term, and there

is no sign that they are moved or motivated by working towards the common good. This

motivation has brought a new age of technology into existence, but it can go to an extreme and

introduce problems that can arise because of major corporations pursuing self-interest with less

regard to the greater good.

In the meantime, consumers and users have been gaining benefits such as targeted ads

which should only show them ads of products that will more likely catch their interests. They

will also have more personalized experience throughout the world wide web because of the data

the companies collect and present only useful information and services to the user. Customers

will no longer need to reenter information after it has been entered once for a more fluent user

experience and a quicker shopping session.

The second stakeholder, privacy movements and more privately oriented people, will

more likely fall on the Rights ethical framework. This framework represents duty-based ethics

that attempt to enforce the fact that there are certain dignities and aspect that should never be

taken from a person. In this case, the right is the aspect of privacy which for a long time has been
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easy to obtain and maintain but now that the digital age has evolved to the point it has this right

has begun to disappear for our lives and is now a luxury to obtain and soon would become

impossible to even maintain. Though asking for companies to stop collecting data would greatly

affect progress in the technological aspect of life but it may be worth slowing down for some

who believe in the right to privacy.

There seem to be many who long for more privacy in life and because so much info about

them is online it greatly bothers them, especially since it is now near impossible to remove all

that information from the web. The only course of action for this movement right now to fight

for the regulation of data and companies using said data, and for there to be more consequences

against companies and other entities if they fail to protect their users’ data from breaches by

hackers.

Personal Perspective

My personal perspective sways more towards the second stakeholder, those who fight for

privacy. I personally believe that privacy is something that is sacred to a person and I find it

unforgivable that companies deal with data and its security so casually they barely see any long-

term consequence. The problem is that even government agencies are now taking part in selling

personal information. Based on investigation by Vice, the DMV gains some income from selling

drivers’ personal information to third parties, including their names, addresses, cars they own.

This is worrisome because the public rely on government to protect them, but if the government

is also participating in profiting for the sales of private information then who will stand up for

the general public (White, 2020)?

In regard to targeted ads, people prefer non-ad experiences and there are a lot of services

that have an optional ad-free subscription to their services which many would rather use but
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don’t want to spend the extra money because subscriptions but they don’t realize that they are

paying for the service, but with their data instead of money. This truly makes one think whether

having free utilities on the internet is worth our information being shared. Interestingly enough

there has been some research into how much it would cost if everyone who uses the internet

would pay each month to have access to everything, they use without ever seeing

advertisements; the figure was $35 a month. $35 a month if we all paid for it instead of relying

on ads, we can enjoy the internet with no advertisements and still enjoy free media and materials,

companies would have much less incentive to attempt collecting your information. This may

sound impossible and it might be, but we could move closer towards something similar if we aim

for it (Molla, 2019).

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References

Apple. (n.d.). Share analytics information from your Mac with Apple. Retrieved October 19,

2020, from https://support.apple.com/guide/mac-help/share-analytics-information-mac-

apple-mh27990/mac

Feldman, B. (2017, March 31). It's Time for a Grassroots Movement Toward Better Online

Privacy. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://nymag.com/intelligencer/2017/03/its-

time-for-a-grassroots-movement-for-online-privacy.html

Goel, V. (2014, June 30). Facebook Tinkers with Users' Emotions in News Feed Experiment,

Stirring Outcry. Retrieved October 19, 2020, from

https://www.nytimes.com/2014/06/30/technology/facebook-tinkers-with-users-emotions-

in-news-feed-experiment-stirring-outcry.html

Google. (n.d.). Data Practices & Transparency - Google Safety Center. Retrieved October 19,

2020, from https://safety.google/privacy/data/

Grothaus, M. (2018, December 12). How our data got hacked, scandalized, and abused in 2018.

Retrieved October 19, 2020, from https://www.fastcompany.com/90272858/how-our-data-

got-hacked-scandalized-and-abused-in-2018

Jackson, G. (2014, January). Grey Areas: Irresponsible Corporations and Reputational

Dynamics. Retrieved 2020, from

https://www.researchgate.net/publication/273923188_Grey_Areas_Irresponsible_Corporati

ons_and_Reputational_Dynamics
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Molla, R. (2019, June 24). The cost of an ad-free internet: $35 more per month. Retrieved

October 19, 2020, from https://www.vox.com/recode/2019/6/24/18715421/internet-free-

data-ads-cost

Porter, E. (2014, July 15). Motivating Corporations to Do Good. Retrieved October 19, 2020,

from https://www.nytimes.com/2014/07/16/business/the-do-good-corporation.html

Sigulem, D. (2017). Digital Revolution. Retrieved from

https://www.sciencedirect.com/topics/psychology/digital-revolution

White, A. (2020, May 05). DMVs Can (And Do) Collect and Sell Your Personal Data. Retrieved

October 19, 2020, from https://www.caranddriver.com/features/a32035408/dmv-selling-

driver-data/