Why Defending Online Privacy in Digital Age Is So Important - Research Proposal Example

If the two elements did not exist, people would rethink their participation. Therefore, considering the importance of sharing private information online in maintaining a vibrant Internet, there is a need to defend people’s privacy and data that is online from government intrusion; this essay will, through presenting evidence from books and other sources, prove that violation of online privacy is a danger to technology companies, the internet, and peoples civil rights.

Research and evidence
In carrying out this research, I will rely on newspaper articles, expert views from lawyers and internet experts, books, and journals. I will rely on newspaper and magazine articles because the issue of government surveillance has become a hot topic since Edward Snowden released leaks about massive spying and illegal collection of data being carried out by the American government. Internet experts and founders of large Internet companies will provide an interesting perspective on online privacy. Books and journals will provide an intellectual and philosophical view in the discussion of privacy. All materials used will be secondary and tertiary.

Arguments
Massive and illegal mining of personal data is a threat to the Internet. The Internet is based on openness and trust. When people share their data online, they do not expect the information will end up with the government or other third parties (Mears and Cohen 16). If they expect that would be the case, they would refuse to share it. On Facebook, people share personal data with their friends. That sharing creates trust and genuine engagement. Without people sharing personal information, social networking sites would lose their ability and keep people engaged online. This would signify the decline of social media. Another threat is the fledgling crowd services offered by Amazon web services, Google app engine, box, dropbox, and others. Foreign companies would fear keeping their data with American companies if the American government would access it illegally. Data mining as the NSA is doing is a threat to American companies and the internet by an extension (Herman 23).

Lack of online privacy will lead to the breakup of the Internet. The Internet is a massive highway of information. The NSA is using man-in-the-middle attacks to collect data passing through the Internet. This suggests that the government and other data miners in the industry whose main business is mining data and selling to companies can potentially retrieve any information posted online. Some governments fearing losing sensitive information about their operations are suggesting creating firewalls or disconnecting the national internet from the global Internet. This means that if the actions of the NSA and other people were contained, people would lose trust in the Internet and leading to its breakup ("How Your Data Are Being Deeply Mined."). A breakup would hurt American internet companies because they are the dominant players on the internet.

Conclusion
In the research paper, I hope to demonstrate that illegal data mining as done by the NSA and other data miners undermines the Internet and could cause its collapse. The gains from data mining are insignificant compared to the loss of trust and openness that make the Internet vibrant (Schneier 56). Read More