Blog #9: You, Yourself, and Your Personal Data

Authors: Anvith Potluri, Kevin Li, Kevin Nguyen, & Varad Thorat

The line that should be drawn is that companies should not have any access to people’s personal information. Personal convenience should not come at the expense of people’s private information. Right now, companies can track your IP address, location, and cookie ids(CBS). This is too much information that companies can gain from individuals.

The effect of this trade is that individuals will have no online privacy at all. Companies will have access to everyone’s information. From a consequentialist framework, this will have significant negative consequences. No one will be safe on the Internet as there is simply no privacy. As of right now, Google has access to information about people’s wifi and GPS coordinates(Yanofsky). This could have lasting consequences if in the future, companies got a hold of people’s vital information such as social security number or bank details.If this were to happen, society would be at the complete mercy of big companies.

The tech companies role in these questions is tracking information of the individuals in society. Google, Facebook, and many other social media companies are tracking our information to help marketers advertise their materials.(CBS) From a duty-based framework, they should not be invading our privacy because it is morally wrong. Even if it is to help marketers, they should not do it at the expense of individual people’s data.

Data should be in control of the individuals. Companies should not have control of individual’s data unless individuals state that they can.Informed consent should include companies stating exactly what data they are using and what they will do with that data. The people that companies should take pieces of data from are individuals who are fine with that company’s data collection. Companies should not intrude on people who don’t want their data taken.

Sources:

Yanofsky, David. “If You’re Using an Android Phone, Google May Be Tracking Every Move You Make.” Quartz, Quartz, 27 Jan. 2018, http://qz.com/1183559/if-youre-using-an-android-phone-google-may-be-tracking-every-move-you-make/.

CBS News. “How You’re Tracked Online — and What You Can Do about It.” CBS News, CBS Interactive, 8 Apr. 2018, http://www.cbsnews.com/news/how-youre-tracked-online-facebook-google-amazon-uber-what-you-can-do-about-it/.