Privacy And Government Surveillance

From social networks to surveillance, today’s information age has changed the way we look at new and old technologies, services, and policies. One major influence of the information age was the use of big data and how it could transform the traditional market for advertising and marketing to increase business profitability. More and more companies are using big data as a strategic resource to differentiate their businesses and gain the competitive advantage. This culture lead to rapid development of data collecting and analytic tools to drive business intelligence that would help organizations make better decisions. The development of data collecting methods and tools has also increased public concerns for privacy and security. Much of the

Based on surveys in the article of “Americans’ attitude about privacy, security and surveillance” by Mary Madden (Madden, 2015), the result show that 88% of the public prefers that they not have someone watch or listen to them without their permission. Also, more than 50% of the adults described themselves as “very concerned” about government surveillance on Americans’ data and electronic communication (Madden, 2015). These results suggest that the government lacks interest in keeping information privacy balanced with the need of security in which could erode public support for government efforts in increasing security. According to Daniel Solove, it is not how information is being collected but the problem lies on “information processing – the storage, use, or analysis of data” (Solove, 2007). It is clear that there is a significant relationship and concern between the use of information and how the government plans to keep its social interests aligned while respecting personal privacy. For this reason, the government needs to find a better process in collecting data and disclosing personal

While it is difficult to ensure that personal data and privacy is respected, the best solution to this is to become more transparent as to what and how information is used. As proposed by David Brin, “the best way of protecting privacy is by making everything transparent so that we know who is abusing or misusing any personal data” (Brin, 1999). An example of how we can approach this is by focusing on surveillance programs like PRISM. Although it is considered “legal”, the ability to restrict personal data from the government sector is not. Hence the need for programs like these to justify that it is doing the appropriate thing and that it is not using data as an excuse for social power while leaving many to doubt the