The Lack of Privacy and Its Impact on Our Lives
Introduction
The 21st century is characterized by the rapid access to information communication technology. Without a doubt, the technological advances set apart by the digital age have, as stated by Davidson (2011), tremendously transformed "how we live, work and learn." This has been made easy by the fact that the cost of purchasing digital equipment such as computers, mobile phones and other related gadgets has been declining over the years; meaning that access to digital technology has outgrown the boundaries of economic standards relative to neighborhoods, cities, countries and so forth. The internet is presumably the key driver of the digital age. Not only does the internet serve as the …show more content…
The million dollar question is who captures this personal data? And how do they store it? To answer the first question, both banking institutions and credit card companies do store part of your personal data for use during transactions. However, this data is easily available to the well-trained eye in matters technology, and especially as it relates to hacking. According to Lohr (2010), the use of computers to analytically process personal profiles of individuals can result in narrowing pieces of data to realize a distinct digital signature of a particular personal, including his or her birthday dates, current place of residence, and so forth. Such information is later sold on the information black market and may be used to create fake aliases or even …show more content…
More often than not, this private data is lost due to Information Technology security breaches whereby hackers steal vital private information from company devices. In the face of such breaches, corporation’s often end up paying exaggerated fines, legal fees and redress costs to customers and employees. Aqcuisti (2010) provides the example of ChoicePoint, which in 2005 following a breach, ended up paying close to $30 million in fines and fees. Similarly TJX also suffered losses of over $250 million following the loss of 45 million credit and debit card numbers from its
Introduction
The 21st century is characterized by the rapid access to information communication technology. Without a doubt, the technological advances set apart by the digital age have, as stated by Davidson (2011), tremendously transformed "how we live, work and learn." This has been made easy by the fact that the cost of purchasing digital equipment such as computers, mobile phones and other related gadgets has been declining over the years; meaning that access to digital technology has outgrown the boundaries of economic standards relative to neighborhoods, cities, countries and so forth. The internet is presumably the key driver of the digital age. Not only does the internet serve as the …show more content…
The million dollar question is who captures this personal data? And how do they store it? To answer the first question, both banking institutions and credit card companies do store part of your personal data for use during transactions. However, this data is easily available to the well-trained eye in matters technology, and especially as it relates to hacking. According to Lohr (2010), the use of computers to analytically process personal profiles of individuals can result in narrowing pieces of data to realize a distinct digital signature of a particular personal, including his or her birthday dates, current place of residence, and so forth. Such information is later sold on the information black market and may be used to create fake aliases or even …show more content…
More often than not, this private data is lost due to Information Technology security breaches whereby hackers steal vital private information from company devices. In the face of such breaches, corporation’s often end up paying exaggerated fines, legal fees and redress costs to customers and employees. Aqcuisti (2010) provides the example of ChoicePoint, which in 2005 following a breach, ended up paying close to $30 million in fines and fees. Similarly TJX also suffered losses of over $250 million following the loss of 45 million credit and debit card numbers from its