{"id":924,"date":"2016-04-17T19:18:56","date_gmt":"2016-04-17T23:18:56","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/eiq.knx.mybluehost.me\/website_78d26930\/bigdatacourse?p=924"},"modified":"2016-04-17T19:19:11","modified_gmt":"2016-04-17T23:19:11","slug":"privacy-ethics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jjsylvia.com\/bigdatacourse\/privacy-ethics\/","title":{"rendered":"Privacy & Ethics"},"content":{"rendered":"

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One of the games I have on my phone is Color Switch, a generally easy but incredibly frustrating game that basically involves touching the screen at the right time. \u00a0I don’t have it connected to any social media account, so it doesn’t post on my behalf without my knowledge. \u00a0I thought that this probably meant that it had very few permissions and very little access to the data on my phone – an assumption I found out was radically incorrect when I looked up the user agreement.<\/p>\n

This app, while only a seemingly harmless game, has access to my photo gallery and other media as well as my phone’s contacts and call identity; it also has permission to add to and delete from my USB memory. \u00a0All of these can presumably have a related purpose. \u00a0The game needs to be able to save its\u00a0own data, and delete said data if I request it, which would require access to my USB memory. \u00a0Maybe I might also want to send information about the game and my results to someone I know, necessitating that the game be able to access my contacts. \u00a0But an issue arises in other cases. \u00a0What if, for some reason, the game and those who created it wanted to delete other random data from my USB memory? Since it technically has access to that, and I granted it that access, the game and its creators could theoretically delete things as they desired. \u00a0While I am dubious that this could ever happen, the possibility (and also technical legality) of it is quite interesting.<\/p>\n

I agreed to this when I downloaded the game and pressed “Agree” on the permissions page. \u00a0So did the other millions of users who have downloaded the same game. \u00a0Finding what permissions we collectively granted isn’t difficult, either; they are easily available on the Play Store. \u00a0Even so, it seems like the ethical solution would be to allow users to opt out of data collection if they so wished. \u00a0Not allowing exclusion from such a potentially damaging data collection regime is slimy at best and straight-up unethical at worst.<\/p>\n

Luckily, I’ve never been put in the position of those like Snowden and the hackers responsible for the Panama Papers. \u00a0To be honest, I’m not sure what I would do in those cases, knowing that my quality of life and safety would be on the line if I chose to expose the misdoings of those in authority positions. \u00a0I would like to think that I would believe that the greater good and ethics is worth more than my one individual life, but since I’ve never been in that situation, I can’t be so sure. \u00a0I don’t have any ethical qualms, however, with prosecuting those whose misdoings have been discovered and published through hacking. \u00a0Illegal things are illegal, regardless of whether they were discovered legally or not. \u00a0Those who hacked for the information should also be prosecuted, but no one should be excused from their consequences just because of the way in which their illegal actions were found out. \u00a0If that were the case, then people could “hire” hackers to release information so that they wouldn’t have to face consequences, a certainly negative unintended side effect.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One of the games I have on my phone is Color Switch, a generally easy but incredibly frustrating game that basically involves touching the screen at the right time. \u00a0I don’t have it connected to any social media account, so it doesn’t post on my behalf without my knowledge. \u00a0I thought that this probably meant
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