Module 6: Discussion
Ethical and Social Challenges Associated with Big Data
Nearly everything in today’s world is captured as digital data. To emphasize this statement, consider the volume of Big Data collected per minute for various social media platforms listed below:
Snapchat: Over 527,760 photos shared by users
LinkedIn: Over 120 professionals join the network
YouTube: 4,146,600 videos watched
Twitter: 456,000 tweets sent or created
Instagram: 46,740 photos uploaded
Netflix: 69,444 hours of video watched
Giphy: 694,444 GIFs served
Tumblr: 74,220 posts published
Skype: 154,200 calls made by users
For more information on these statistics, optionally see Here’s How Much Big Data Companies Make On The Internet.Links to an external site.
For this discussion, you will pick one large data aggregator services company like Amazon, Google, or Facebook and consider, given the enormous amount of data collected across these sites, some of their privacy and legal concerns related to Big Data and its use.
For your initial post, review the module lesson, and address the following:
Identify the company you have selected to analyze
Describe some of the privacy and/or legal concerns related to Big Data and its use by that company. Justify your claims with specific examples and cite your source(s).
As a result of Big Data and its applications, does personal privacy exist in the 21stt century? If not, why? If so, Is this a good or a bad thing? You may support your stance with anecdotal evidence.
Respond to at least two of your peers by addressing the following:
Critique the argument and offer suggestions for what the company could have been done differently or what should be done about this problem.
Provide examples of why you agree or disagree on the current state of privacy (whether it’s good or bad). Respond based on your general thoughts or perception on the ethical and social challenges associated with Big Data and its applications.
To successfully complete this assignment, view the Discussion Rubric document.
To Comment on:
Response 1:
The company I selected for this discussion is Facebook (Meta Platforms Inc.).
Privacy and Legal Concerns: Facebook collects a lot of data from its users, including personal information, browsing history, and social interactions. This huge data collecting creates numerous privacy and legal concerns. For example, the Cambridge Analytica incident in 2018 exposed how Facebook’s data-sharing procedures allowed third-party companies to obtain user data without authorization from its users, which was then used for political advertising. This incident raised a lot of questions, concerns, and issues about how personal information is managed and the transparency of data-sharing methods.
Not only that, but Facebook also faces scrutiny over its handling of user data in compliance with privacy regulations like the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in Europe. Some of these issues are inadequate user consent mechanisms and the mishandling of data requests, which have led to significant fines in the past decade and a half.
Nowadays, personal privacy is becoming more and more weak as a result of these issues. Increasing data collection by companies such as Facebook shows that true privacy may no longer be possible. Many people some believe that data-driven innovations provide benefits such as personalized services and better user experiences, but their cost frequently includes considerable privacy threats. For example, while customized ads can be beneficial on many occasions, they also result in a loss of control over personal information and data.
Works Cited
Cadwalladr, C., & Graham-Harrison, E. (2018). “The Cambridge Analytica Files.” The Guardian.
European Commission. (2021). “Data Protection: Commission fines Facebook €110 million for providing misleading information about WhatsApp takeover.”
Tufekci, Z. (2018). “We’re Building a Dystopia Just to Make People Click on Ads.” The Atlantic.
Response 2:
I will be discussing big data aggregator Facebook, formerly Meta, fully aware of how much the data of users is being handled across various platforms, inclusive of Facebook, Instagram, and WhatsApp. One major grievance on issues of privacy has to do with how Facebook painstakingly collects and shares private information of users with third-party services. There was, for instance, the 2018 scandal involving Cambridge Analytica, where personal data belonging to millions of users was collected without permission and used in political advertisements. Moreover, the approximation of Facebook’s Big Data for targeted advertising raises a series of transparency concerns—things users may not realize how much data is collected and how it will be used in order to have an influence on their behavior. Different legal measures have been established to cope with these problems, including the GDPR; however, concerns regarding the ethical implications of such practices remain.
In today’s 21st-century world, personal privacy seems to be increasingly compromised by the routine collection of Big Data through firms like Facebook. Though on the books, there are numerous state and federal privacy laws that offer protection in many cases, the laws often lag well behind rapid technological changes, making true privacy hard to maintain. The erosion of privacy can be seen in both a constructive and destructive perspective: on one hand, opening up possibilities for innovation or service customization; on another, leaving users open to manipulation and data breaches, raising essential ethical considerations upon the trade-offs between privacy and technological advance.
Sources
Hern, A. (2018). Cambridge Analytica scandal. The Guardian.
European Union. (2018). General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR).