Data Mining And The Government's Invasion Of Privacy

Everyone in today’s world uses the internet without knowing its potential dangers. Hackers could steal medical histories, bank records, and credit histories with just the click of a few buttons. Companies can harvest and sell their customers’ information without any consequences. The government data mines and stores information in an attempt to target terrorists, despite violating millions of people’s privacy. People need stronger privacy protection to ensure their personal safety, to stop companies from data mining, and to prevent the government from gaining excessive control.

Data mining is everywhere and it poses a real danger to people’s safety. One industry that is considering to start data mining is the healthcare industry. Matt McFarland

It can violate privacy in numerous ways including, exclusion and secondary use of information. Exclusion is when the government prevents people from being aware of how their data is being used (Solove 166). Solove discusses the dangers of exclusion by stating, “Many government national-security measures involve maintaining a huge database of information that individuals cannot access.”. This automatically gives the government increased power over its citizens, due to the lack of citizen choice and awareness. Another issue that contributes to the government gaining excessive power and control is the secondary use of citizens’ information. Secondary use of information is the use of data harvested for a certain reason being used for another reason without the citizen’s permission (Solove 166). The government can reuse a piece of information repeatedly and the subject of this information would never know nor possess control over the situation. If people cannot give consent and they have no way to access that data, then they have no control over their own information. But without laws that clearly define what the government can and cannot do with their citizens’ data, then the government will always have exaggerated control and power over their

People think that government data mining will lead to increased safety, due to the fact that the government is searching for terrorists and criminals, but what if the government mistakes innocent people for criminals? The risk of the government targeting innocent people is quite high because analyzing data can only reveal part of a story. Solove explains this further by stating, “ Although personal information can reveal quite a lot about people’s personalities and activities, it often fails to reflect the whole person. It can paint a distorted picture, especially since records are reductive -- they often capture information in a standardized format with many details omitted.” (Solove 166). The public should not have to worry about every aspect of their behavior, due to how the government might interpret it. The fact that the government can target people without knowing the whole story is disturbing and shows that people should care about how government data mining affects their