Ethics Assignment - Privacy 2

In answer to the question, do we have a moral obligation or duty to protect our privacy, I agree with Allen in her statement, “[i]f the experience of privacy is important to human dignity and wellbeing, it is something individuals with a choice should not choose to carelessly discard or give away.”  In this country, we allow people to vote at the age of 18 because we believe they are capable of making sound judgements.  Therefore, an adult can make an ethically sound decision to share whatever information they want.  According to Allen, this makes me a privacy libertarian, but I believe that when you make a decision to share information, you must live with the consequences.  However, in some cases, people are not aware of the consequences because they are not informed about how their information is used.  Here, I agree with Allen’s statement that Big Data amounts to digital surveillance. How companies are using our data is unethical, therefore, I believe it is a collective obligation to protect individual privacy.

Prior to the Internet, if I wanted to research a topic, I could go to the library and browse the information without someone recording where or what I was looking at.  With advanced technology, vast amounts of information is available at my fingertips and I should be able to use it without unwanted surveillance.  For example, market researchers are taking advantage of technology to watch what people are doing on the Internet to pinpoint their preferences and target them with direct advertising.  Free enterprise is the problem.  We allow companies to take advantage of us by offering conveniences then using the information collected for other means, such as making a bigger profit by tracking purchases to ensure they offer products that appeal to the larger masses.  I do not agree with Allen that individuals have a moral responsibility to protect their own privacy.  In my option, this is the equivalent to victim blaming.  If I do not want my house to be burglarized, I can get a home alarm system and make sure all my doors and windows are locked.  But what if a burglar breaks the window, steals my jewelry, and leaves before the police (having been notified by the alarm company) arrive?  Is it my fault that I was burglarized? Did I not do enough to protect my home?  If I choose to shop online and make sure that the website I use encrypts my credit card information but it gets stolen anyway and I am the victim of identity theft, is it my fault because I chose to shop online? 

If I want to save money at the grocery store, I need to get a free discount card so I can get some items at a reduced price.  The grocery store is now monitoring which items I’m purchasing to learn what interests me, as well as other consumers, to know what products are popular and what their target audience is.  In short, they are trying to make more money.   I could choose to keep my purchases private by not signing up for the card but perhaps I am on a tight budget and need to provide for my family as frugally as possible.  The grocery store chain is using my financial situation to their advantage and this is unethical.  Collectively, we should be blaming the users of the personal information that is being collected, not the people that are offering it up.  Of course we still need to make good judgements about what is shared.  But as Allen states, we need to “push business and government to address the complex threat to privacy posed by Big Data.”