Lack of Control over Personal Data


User Security Concerns

We may not have sufficient control over how our personal information is collected, used, or shared by online platforms.This issue highlights the importance of implementing strong security measures and being aware of potential threats when using online services. By 2025, around 85% of the world’s industrial data will be processed in the cloud. These existing models of ‘big data’ being stored via cloud storage lack the capacity for such a great demand on existing resources, thus this would necessitate the reliance on federated and brokerage cloud models. However, current federal models lack concise terms for “standardization, security, governance, risk, and control (GRC), trust, access management, incident response, and business continuity” (Dhirani et al., 2023). The concept of permitting corporate entities such as Apple, Microsoft, and Google complete access to our personal data ie media, and to house them in a cloud in perpetuity, demonstrates the disconnect that users of these services face. The reality of personal information, personal data is, that it is frequently breached, leaked, and illegally disseminated unbeknownst to the owner of said data.  The focus must then be on the evaluation of current trends in technology both regionally and abroad, enacting legislation that will protect personal information, as well as developing “new and unique system designs” that will yield security of personal information and our nation’s overall security (Wang et al., 2022). 


    User Privacy Concerns

An argument that has been made ad nauseam, pertains to the future and the path that society is presently traversing. People are finding it harder and harder to disconnect, to ‘put the phone down’ to ‘pay attention to what is in front of them’, due to the all-encompassing consumption of social media as a daily habit. According to Pew Research Center ( 2018), experts are attributing this inability to connect, because these applications and social media platforms are convenient and efficient, and continue to find compelling ways to keep users engaged with others and the apps themselves. But what happens to the small percentage of individuals who enjoy living life unfettered by social media expectations, who rarely post pictures or “stories”, who keep their social media engagement to a minimum, and then become unwilling participants to tagged posts, images, etc without their consent? According to Carrie James (2014)  people who elect not to join online social networks are often unconsenting participants on Facebook, YouTube, and the like, since both well-intentioned and malintentioned users share photos, videos, and comments featuring these nonusers, this then becomes a concerning privacy violation. 


How can we as individuals protect our online presence from security and privacy concerns? I believe that we should hold government officials accountable for enacting stringent legislation that will ensure these corporations adhere to the strictest safety protocols, and better transparency of terms and agreement user consent. Issues of privacy and security in our online environment will never improve if we do not hold the responsible parties accountable. 




References


Dhirani, L. L., Mukhtiar, N., Chowdhry, B. S., & Newe, T. (2023). Ethical dilemmas and privacy issues in emerging technologies: A Review. Sensors, 23(3), 1151. https://doi.org/10.3390/s23031151 

James, Carrie. Disconnected : Youth, New Media, and the Ethics Gap, MIT Press, 2014. ProQuest Ebook Central, https://ebookcentral.proquest.com/lib/empire-ebooks/detail.action?docID=3339864.



Pew Research Center. (2018, August 17). How Americans feel about social media and privacy. https://www.pewresearch.org/short-reads/2018/03/27/americans-complicated-feelings-about-social-media-in-an-era-of-privacy-concerns/


Wang, C., Guo, F., & Ji, M. (2022). Analysis of legal issues of personal information protection in the field of Big Data. Journal of Environmental and Public Health, 2022, 1–10. https://doi.org/10.1155/2022/1678360 


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