This paper would like to research about the impact brought about by the advancement of communication technology, especially in surveillance technology, to an individual’s privacy and convenience. The rapid advancement in communication technology is one of the most salient feature of the modern society. Many people welcome this advancement as a positive development because of its positive impact to an individual’s convenience. Computers and smartphones, which utilizes the internet communication technology, have enabled individuals to work, shop and study online even in the comforts of their own home. E-commerce, for example, is becoming the new business trend as evidence by the phenomenal growth of online retail businesses of Ebay, Amazon, Alibaba and many others. This growth in e-commerce, according to Australian researchers, is unlikely to abate soon primarily because of convenience and because online shopping “provides a range of benefits in addition to prices that are often substantially lower than those offered by ‘bricks and mortar’ retailers” (Irvine, Richardson, Fear, & Denniss, 2011, p. 3). There is also a growing number of people that are telecommuting or working online as companies extend their workforce using this new platform (Cross, 2017). This new way of working is also poised to revolutionize the working experience of individuals in terms of convenience.
However, there is also a growing concern that modern communication technologies jeopardizes and individual’s privacy. With the use of modern surveillance technologies, both private and public entities has obtained the ability to gather personal information among individuals that uses modern communication technologies, which they can use for whatever self-serving purpose that they intend to. Heidi Boghosian, the executive director of the National Lawyers Guild and author of the book ‘Spying on Democracy: Government Surveillance, Corporate Power, and the Public Interest,’ for instance, observed that retail outlets such as Walmart and Target are leveraging on modern information and communication technologies in order to gather personal information among their customers so they can profile them and subject them to targeted advertising. As observed by Boghosian, retail giants engage in mass surveillance through by keeping records of their customer’s buying behaviors (Boghosian, 2017). These data are then gathered and linked on every individual’s personal information that can be obtained when consumers use their credit cards. Using these data, business entities can analyze their customers’ buying patterns, which they can use for advertising purposes. Similarly, modern online companies have been observed to gather information through the use of their online services. In fact, surveillance has become a major business for social media companies, such as google, facebook and twitter among many others collaborate with other companies by offering their client’s information towards businesses who are interested in strategic advertisement and marketing. The basic idea is to determine customer preferences that are explicitly or implicitly stated by their online activities. These are data that are valuable in a business marketing perspective, which can be easily retrieved from “previous transaction records, Web logs, or cookies” (Yang, Cheng, Dia, & Lin, 2006, p. 1). The issue of communication technology being used for surveillance is not new concern. In fact, governments are also observed to engage in warrantless surveillance and has been observed to tap major telecommunication companies to expand its surveillance capabilities. The practice of “buying and borrowing private-sector databases,” according to researchers, is a known government activity (Richards, 2013, p. 1934). Government agencies such as the National Security Agency (NSA) is believed to has been collaborating with private sectors and is building its own data and supercomputing centers for the purpose of “intercepting and storing much of the world’s Internet communications for decryption and analysis” (Richards, 2013, p. 1934). This research, however, will focus only on business entities. Nevertheless, the involvement of the government in such activities shows that such practice is already widespread and is becoming more sophisticated. Apparently, there exist a conflict between convenience and privacy because modern businesses utilize communication technologies as a tool to secretly spy on individuals who utilize these services.
Research Question:
The research question is ‘How does businesses use modern communication technology as surveillance tools and what is its implication to individual privacy?’
Essay Outline:
I. Introduction
II. Body
a. Brief History of the Development of Communication Technology
b. The Use of Modern Communication Technology for Data Mining and Surveillance
c. The Impact of Surveillance on Individual Privacy
III. Conclusion
Bibliography:
The articles that will be used to conduct the research and analysis would include:
1. Boghosian, H. (2017). The Business of Surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/2013_vol_39/may_2013_n2_privacy/the_business_of_surveillance.html
2. Cross, T. B. (2017). Telecommuting 2017. The Future Technology of Working Green. Retrieved from http://techtionary.com/books/telecommuting/index.pdf
3. Deeks, A. (2015). An International Legal Framework for Surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.vjil.org/assets/pdfs/vol55/VJIL_55.2_Deeks_FINAL.pdf
4. Irvine, B., Richardson, D., Fear, J., & Denniss, R. (2011). The rise and rise of online retail. Retrieved from http://www.tai.org.au/sites/defualt/files/TB%208%20Online%20retail%20formatted_10.pdf
5. Richards, N. M. (2013). THE DANGERS OF SURVEILLANCE. Retrieved from http://cdn.harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/vol126_richards.pdf
6. Yang, W.-S., Cheng, H.-C., Dia, J.-B., & Lin, H.-T. (2006). Mining Social Networks for Targeted Advertising. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Cente/Downloads/social%20network%20mining.pdf
References
Boghosian, H. (2017). The Business of Surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.americanbar.org/publications/human_rights_magazine_home/2013_vol_39/may_2013_n2_privacy/the_business_of_surveillance.html
Cross, T. B. (2017). Telecommuting 2017. The Future Technology of Working Green. Retrieved from http://techtionary.com/books/telecommuting/index.pdf
Deeks, A. (2015). An International Legal Framework for Surveillance. Retrieved from http://www.vjil.org/assets/pdfs/vol55/VJIL_55.2_Deeks_FINAL.pdf
Irvine, B., Richardson, D., Fear, J., & Denniss, R. (2011). The rise and rise of online retail. Retrieved from http://www.tai.org.au/sites/defualt/files/TB%208%20Online%20retail%20formatted_10.pdf
Richards, N. M. (2013). THE DANGERS OF SURVEILLANCE. Retrieved from http://cdn.harvardlawreview.org/wp-content/uploads/pdfs/vol126_richards.pdf
Yang, W.-S., Cheng, H.-C., Dia, J.-B., & Lin, H.-T. (2006). Mining Social Networks for Targeted Advertising. Retrieved from file:///C:/Users/Cente/Downloads/social%20network%20mining.pdf
