Ethical Issues Raised by Data Mining
Data mining is the practice of gathering data from various sources and manipulating it to provide richer information than any of contributing sources is able to do alone or to produce previously unknown information. Businesses and governments share information that they have collected with the purpose of cross-referencing it to find out more information about the people tracked in their databases.
Data mining has many benefits. Stores are able to stock merchandise that better reflects what customers want. When Victoria’s Secret started tracking user purchases they noticed that customers in Miami bought much more white lingerie than customers in other areas. As a result they began stocking more white products instead of uniformly stocking all stores benefiting both the store and the customer[i]. Another benefit is that it allows companies to consolidate data from many different sources so that more time can be spent analyzing data than finding it in the first place. This is useful for companies that have multiple financial systems and spend a lot of time trying to combine data into a more useful format rather than doing the actual analysis of the data. A more dramatic example is that some say that 9/11 could have been prevented if the FBI had better data mining tools to share and combine information from different offices[ii]. In addition to crime prevention and financial analysis the medical research community can use these techniques in medical research to identify trends and causes of disease.
Along with the numerous benefits data mining also has a downside. Combining data from various sources can result in revealing information people would consider private and woul...
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[xvi] Tavani, Herman T., “Privacy and the Internet” Ethics and Technology Conference, Boston, MA, 5 June 1999. (Boston College Intellectual Property Forum, 2000).
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[xviii] Federal Trade Commission, Privacy Online: A Report to Congress (Washington, DC: GPO, 1998) 3.
Burns and Allen were one of the few entertainers that succeeded in vaudeville, film, radio and television. Both established a new format in performing; domestic situation comedy, which was imitated by many directors till this day. Burns and Allen succeeded in their career and made millions of people laugh for decades. Burns and Allen had a successful partnership, marriage and family. The Burns and Allen Show was one of the few shows during the 1920s and 1930s that did not include clown, jugglers, etc., to make the show funny and was a great example of a successful transition from theater to film to radio and finally to television
According to the report provided by the consultant, the employees at this facility were not taking precautions in safeguarding the patient’s health information. Therefore, the employees at this facility were in violation of the Health Insurance Portability and Accountability Act (HIPPA). It is important for employees to understand the form of technology being used and the precautions they must take to safeguard patient information.
Fossil fuels will remain a primary source of energy because of a few very fundamental concepts. The first of these is simple: why change what isn’t currently broken? The U.S. has been using oil for a large portion of our energy need since the early 1900’s. Since then, the U.S. has used oil more and more each year as we research more efficient ways to harvest, transport, and burn it. The only way the United States will shift away from oil is if a better energy source arises or oil causes more complications than convenience. “The iron age didn’t end because the world...
...g/what-is-biodiesel/biodiesel-basics) .This source is definitely a viable option for America, the implementations might start out a little costly. Companies and industries that use fossil fuels need to start going in the direction of renewable resources to sustain their businesses. By implementing a government incentive to these companies, perhaps it will make the process smoother.
Dagar, Anil. “Internet, Economy and Privacy.” Fung Institute for Engineering Leadership. 16 April 2013. Web.
Semantically fossil fuels are a renewable source of energy, however given that it takes millions of years for the organic materials to be broken down and converted, it is wholly unrealistic to consider them as renewable. As the demand for fossil fuels increases and source diminish faster than they are replentished, the United States must work towards a renewable energy independent state using truly renable sources, both technically and in practice. With changes in the home, as consumers in buying goods and with alternative fuel sources backed by public trust and governmental involvement, the United States could drastically lessen its dependence on fossil fuels, foreign and domestic.
Solove, Daniel J. “5 Myths about Privacy” Washington Post: B3. Jun 16 2013. SIRS. Web. 10
LeRoux, Yves. "Privacy concerns in the digital world." 03 Oct 2013. Computer Weekly. 24 April 2014 .
The EU Charter of Fundamental Rights is a document which brings together all of the Fundamental Human Rights together in one, single document. Before the inception of EU Charter of Fundamental Rights, the member states of the European Union had many conflicting opinions on what exactly a human right entailed, therefore the need for a single, codified document outlaying the basic Fundamental Human Rights was great. The Charter was issued in 2000 and at this time, according to Jesse Norman, The Parliamentary Undersecretary of State for Industry and Energy, ‘The charter was then described as a ‘solemn proclamation’ and was designed to strengthen the EU’S political legitimacy, containing rights and freedoms as well as strengthening the rights of
There are various kinds of definitions about what data mining is. The authors in [1] define data mining as “the process of extracting previously unknown information from (usually large quantities of) data, which can, in the right context, lead to knowledge”. Data mining is widely used in areas such as business analysis, bioinformatics analysis, medical analysis, etc. Data mining techniques bring us a lot of benefits. Business companies can use data mining tools to search potential customers and increase their profits; medical diagnosis can use data mining to predict potential disease. Although the term “data mining” itself is neutral and has no ethical implications, it is often related to the analysis of information associated with individuals. “The ethical dilemmas arise when data mining is executed over the data of an individual” [2]. For example, using a user’s data to do data mining and classifying the user into some group may result in a variety of ethical issues. In this paper, we deal with two kinds of ethical issues caused by data mining techniques: informational privacy issues in web-data mining and database security issues in data mining. We also look at these ethical issues in a societal level and a global level.
As society has progressed, there have been many new innovative and unbelievable developments in almost all aspects of life that have ultimately created an impact. More specifically, advancements in technology have rather had a much larger and intense impact on society as it continues to grow. Technology has allowed for many great and useful applications that has made life much easier and convenient. However, many aspects of technology have given a rise to a number of social and ethical issues, causing numerous debates and concerns. One of the more prominent concerns deals with the issue of privacy rights.
Papacharissi, Zizi, and Jan Fernback. "Online Privacy And Consumer Protection: An Analysis Of Portal Privacy Statements." Journal Of Broadcasting & Electronic Media 49.3 (2005): 259-281. Communication & Mass Media Complete. Web. 24 Nov. 2013.
...at to expect from our society and consumers is very key in the business world. With business intelligence and Data Mining strategies and skills, companies can have that extra competitive edge which will in turn increase profits and market share. The skills gained by those employees who specialize in the BI and DM fields will continue to be top-notch assets to companies and based on the salary trends, they will continue to have increasing compensation. Businesses that implement BI and DM effectively will dominate their markets and stay ahead of the curve.
Internet privacy and security has become the concern of many individuals throughout recent years. There are a very limited amount of laws that have been enacted to combat computer or cyber related crimes. This has become an issue because as the internet grows increasingly popular so does the criminal and immoral behavior that abounds on it. With these crimes gaining in impact, effectiveness, and frequency, there needs to be more repercussions for these crimes. The United States government needs to increase restrictions on the amount and type of data on individuals from the internet, to prevent the government from invading privacy of citizens and to prevent companies from storing browser histories of individuals, to then sell that information to ad agencies and other companies.