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Big Data: Privacy Issues

Torey L. Bell, Jr.


Department of Math and Science
Mississippi Valley State University
Doddsville, Mississippi 38736, USA
torey.bell@mvsu.edu
Abstract- Due to people taking advantage of discounts and deals
from companies such as Walgreens, CVS, Amazon, Ebay, and
Kroger, there has been many cases of data being sold off to other
industries and others that doesnt realize this problem. Companies
keep track of purchases and send that data for the other companies
to send exclusive deals that are similar to what has been previously
paid for or viewed online. In this paper, I will be against the usage
of consumer data and why it should be privatized.

I. INTRODUCTION
Being able to take advantage of memberships or similar
purchasing deals offline is a great thing due to saving tons of
money, but with saving comes to your data being shared with
the industry. There have been many instances of people
receiving mail-in advertisements that are standardized to their
purchases and they dont understand how but think its a
normal matter. In that case now, because people should realize
that it is unethical for a company to sell off your data even
though it just small histories of purchases. Today industries are
willing to compensate these companies lots of money just for
peoples' data. Companies should apply that data themselves
and privatize purchase histories.

Fig.1: An image of a direct advertisement from a recent purchase from Ebay.

Even though its great to use advantages of great data for


companies to attain use of as competition, secrecy is a
vexation to recall about when it totals to your data being
transported from one office to some other. Haire states in an
article, "Data outside of technology is waiting to be sucked in
like a vacuum that isn't valuable until the information is
gathered, then it becomes a valuable to the industry. [1]" What
this means is when we use our technology, our data is being
leaked into a lot of other data waiting to be valuable, and this
an issue with privacy standings. There have been recent
examples of companies taking advantage of the social media
and even public sources. All data is stored in a cloud for others
to gain access to, even if you dont require them to deal out
your data. Parsi and Elster states, "someone could only search
their names in a Google search engine and find unpleasing,
embarrassing, or even inappropriate content, without the
person not knowing. [3]" Social media has become a concern
with people because some others dont utilize the privacy
settings that is featured, someone that actually doesn't like
them posts worldwide web, or even industries take advantage
of ideas and make a chunk of money off their data. Big data
has become a mining game for most societies because they are
paying out and experiencing all this money from other
companies to profit just off little pieces of information that is
huge compared to the human eye. What gets to big data so
wealthy is due to information on brands, products, customer
service, medical history, valuations, and reactions to the sales.
Teinowitz states from the FTC, "The FTC has built up new
businesses due to unsolicited email and the standing out of
personal information from Social Security numbers to driver's
license data that is possible to look up on the internet and CDROM products. [2]" What Teinowitz and the FTC are saying is
that big data is becoming a concern and can be a downfall if
industries are allowed to share information and it could be
possible to be on the internet if not dealt with, and this is a
privacy concern because that personal information that could
be leaked. There have been many troubles when it came to
customers buying medications and medical companies would
attempt to engender them to purchase a better product but at a
higher cost even though it is ignored.

III. ACKNOWLEDGEMENT
II. PRIVACY MATTERS

The industry and big data should understand that people


should have privacy when it comes to sharing out their

information. From the social media, purchase histories, and


medical backgrounds, they should be used for their own uses.
Its a serious thing to take in big data because it helps the
company to understand how customers and the social are in an
environment, but it is actually unnecessary to get money off of
data that isnt exactly theirs. The industry should allow users
to make the determination for their data to be shared and that
could cause privacy issues a bit fairer between the
information.
REFERENCES
[1]

[2]

[3]

B. Haire, "Big ag data: Who owns it and where is it going?,"


Southeast Farm Press, vol. 41, no. 27, p. 20-21, December 2014.
[Online]. Available: EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier,
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
sid=d9b8098a-0554-47bb-a832d2ecfb9536b8%40sessionmgr104&vid=21&hid=109. [Accessed
April 25, 2016]
I. Teinowitz, "FTC expands probe of privacy issues.," Advertising
Age, vol. 68, no. 10, p. 43, March 1997. [Online]. Available:
EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier,
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/detail/detail?sid=d9b8098a0554-47bb-a832d2ecfb9536b8%40sessionmgr104&vid=19&hid=109&bdata=JnNp
dGU9ZWhvc3QtbGl2ZQ%3d%3d#AN=9703204694&db=aph.
[Accessed April 25, 2016]
K. Parsi and N. Elster, "Conducting Research on Social MediaIs
Facebook Like the Public Square?," American Journal of
Bioethics, vol. 14, no. 10, p. 63-65, October 2014. [Online].
Available: EBSCOhost Academic Search Premier,
http://web.b.ebscohost.com/ehost/pdfviewer/pdfviewer?
sid=d9b8098a-0554-47bb-a832d2ecfb9536b8%40sessionmgr104&vid=26&hid=109. [Accessed
April 29, 2016]

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