Answer & Explanation:Discussion response needed, needs to be a dialogue:
It is almost impossible to assure users of the internet that the
websites they are using are not capturing data and user information to
be turned around and used for profit. What Personal Privacy rights
does a user have on the internet? These questions have been raised by
consumers, and law makers for years. There are myriads of ways that
online companies capture personal information. The most common way is
through the use of cookies. A cookies are pieces of code that are
stored on a hard drive, that may include personal information such as
name, birthdate, address, and other information typically imputed when a
user registers to a webpage. Other information such as specific user
preferences, browsing history, and online purchases are captured and
stored within at a data warehouse (Privacy Rights Clearinghouse, 1995).
Googles updated privacy policies are essentially allowing
them to capture user data from a variety of their corporate assets
online and mine that data for both user convenience and organizational
profit. Almost all major organizations use this method to capture data
to improve a users online experience. Microsoft, Apple, Amazon,
Google, etc
have been utilizing Data Mining methods for years, with
the majority of users completely unaware of what was happening. Where
these methods become dangerous in my opinion is when corporations
contract third party vendors to write data capture code Cookies and
p
rovide Data Warehousing services. Typically, major companies go
through great lengths to ensure the Confidentiality, Integrity, and
Availability, of private consumer information due to the scale of
liability and exorbitant cost to them in the case of a breach. But some
companies must reach out to third party companies for data storage
since they do not have the infrastructure or staff to man and store
terabytes of information locally. In the case of Google just as with
Microsoft and Apple, I feel that a user should have some sense of safety
when utilizing their cloud services. But just as with data
warehousing, there are many security risks associated with Cloud
services. Most common are cloud companies overseas, if private data is
compromised by a company located in China, Japan, or India, for example
their privacy laws differ from those in the U.S. and it is extremely
costly and time consuming to prosecute foreign companies.
In closing, I feel that googles privacy policies do not violate any
acceptable ethical practices for data mining online. In the end users
must first be educated on risks associated with online browsing and
shopping. Also, users must completely read user agreements prior to
accepting them.Reference: Privacy Rights Clearinghouse. (1995). Online Privacy: Using the Internet Safely. Retrieved from.https://www.privacyrights.org/printpdf/67530Google (2012). Blog: Updating our privacy policies and terms of service. Retrieved from. https://googleblog.blogspot.com/2012/01/updating-o