NSA Surveillance and Commercial Data Collection
The NSA revelations discussed by The Guardian in the article and also in the Frontline documentary The United States of Secrets brings up issues of surveillance and privacy, of course, but it also brings up many other issues. It brings up an issue of power, of ethics, of technology, and of big data. We’ve tackled each of these issues separately throughout class and have touched on how they all blend together, but I think the biggest issue the NSA revelations bring up is how all of these issues come together into a large scandal that is still happening. The big question becomes: what are we okay with and what needs to change, us or them?
A large part of our classes’ discussions about privacy, big data and technology have been in the commercial realm. We have talked about how we feel about companies like Google and Facebook essentially knowing everything about our lives. We have talked about how we feel about advertisers using our data to learn our habits and market us in a highly targeted way, such as the new geolocated advertisements. We’ve talked about the line between privacy and seeing advertisements that actual apply to us. In many ways we end up in the same place I think most Americans currently sit: we’re okay with companies collecting data because it makes our lives easier, but we’re not comfortable with companies knowing so much about us when it becomes obvious. Not many people think about the data collection habits of companies and online powerhouses when it’s represented in the advertisements that are shown online (huh what a coincidence, I was just looking for black boots online, thanks Amazon!). However, when something big happens, say Facebook knows a little too much, or there’s a news report about how much Google collects, or there’s a data breach in a major company (I’m looking at you Target), then people start to think, really think, about how much data companies collect But, does that moment of reflection cause a widespread change or a shift away from one online, data giving habits? No, we as consumers go write about our concerns on Facebook, or tweet at the company with the breech.
But how does that change when it’s no longer a company, but the government that is collecting our data. Suddenly there’s a shift in belief. For many that’s a line in the sand that we’re not wiling to cross. Perhaps it is because we don’t see any benefits (at least we gets ads we like from companies) or maybe people believe that it disobeys our constitutional rights. But whatever the reason, surveillance is the term assigned to the actions of the government as opposed to data collection. Surveillance, a heavy word with a loaded meaning. It invokes many responses, not any of them good. We say we want privacy, we want the government and the NSA to stop monitoring our data. But, again, have we changed our habits since the Snowden incident? I would argue no. Our world has more technology, more social media, more data than ever before, and it is still being collected by the government and by companies. I mean Google still knows who I am.
