Chapter 4: Vignette and Case Study

Vignette: Privacy concerns abound with new IRS systems

1.   What information about you is being held, who is holding it, and what is this information being used for?

          As far as I concerned, there is no such information about me that being held. But there are cases that when I make sign up process in any online web applications like signing in specific social networking sites, and there are a lot of sites regarding that, there is a feeling of uncomfortable. Uncomfortable in a sense that I’m giving my personal information without knowing who will receive it, what they can do about it, or how they can hold and protect it.

2. What measures are being taken to safeguard this information and what happens if it is inadvertently or deliberately stolen?

        One must be responsible enough to safeguard confidential or personal information. We have the right to make it private and secret. One must know how to protect it and hold it properly for a good relationship to the owner of the data. One must not sacrifice one’s personal information just to impersonate something, or one must not sell the information to others just to have money. It is not yours it is someone’s life which you unconsciously putting into battle. And if something happens that it was deliberately stolen, it is important to report it just for others to be aware that they are not the one who make currently actions using your personal information.

Case Study # 3: Is Google Watching You?

    1.    How does Google’s business model use personal data?

        Google business model use personal data by simply having the aim to know what the user’s preferences and by that they can gain from customers. By this way, Google can target their client’s advertisements to the very specific aspect like age, location, profession, hobbies or interest. Google collects search information for advertising purposes; it also stores this information in Google database. Google offers a lot of free applications like email, publishing, blogging, document sharing, video sharing, online calendar, web page creation, web photo albums, and many others. First and perhaps foremost is the concern generated by the wealth of personal information Google is able to assemble using a user’s login identity. To use Google products, users must first create a Google login through which they provide an email address. And by that, your personal information collected and stored in Google database.

    2.    What do you think are the major privacy concerns raised by Google’s business model and applications?

      For me, the major privacy concerning Google’s business model and applications is that Google places cookies on the user’s computer, in order for them to retrieve data on the user or gain more information about a user’s identity before he or she has logged in. And what’s more surprising that they are the first company extends the expiration of its cookies far into the future. The company has its expiration date of 2038, hoping to track user preferences over time. And many complained about this kind of functionality Google responsible. And then Google suddenly set its expiration date after two years it sounds good compare to 2038 until people realized that any time a user visits a Google site, the cookie is automatically renewed for two years, which sounds they are making as fool. And I think it was the major privacy concerns raised by Google Company because they can gain access more about our confidential information which violate and put into risk our own personal privacy.  And also there are possibilities that Google will share the information it collects with other sources. This may possibly cause a serious animosity among the user privacy and the Google Company.

    3.  Do you think Google has taken adequate measures to protect its user’s privacy? Explain you answer.

        I think, in the world of highly competitive people it is not an issue or a matter of who is the one who really fair enough to treat their business, somehow others tend to do what they think is right just to enhance and made their business productive. They may know what is generally wrong but forced to do it instead, or maybe they forced to make hard decisions just to save things and sacrifice the other. What my point here is that, I don’t believe that there is company or business that perfectly arrives. That everything was perfectly happened. Because every business company come up with problems which may lead them to do what is right or to do what is wrong. In the case of Google privacy I could possibly say that yes, they taken adequate measures to protect its user’s privacy just like the issue with the Department of Justice. DOJ did attempt to gain access to two months’ worth of Google’s data as part of its attempt to fight child pornography on the web but Google refused to cooperate. It is because Google pledged to keep its user’s personal data private as well as to protect the trust of its users. DOJ allowed to access part of Google’s index of sites, but preventing it from accessing search-term data.