Data Collection and Data Privacy Argumentative Essay

Argumentative Essay between Data Collection Versus Data Privacy

Argumentative Essay between Data Collection Versus Data Privacy

Based on Statista Research Department (2022), the amount of data created, captured, copied, and consumed worldwide is approximated to be reaching 64.2 zettabytes. It is projected to increase rapidly to over 180 zettabytes over the next five years. The growth of these individual data sets collected daily exposes many individuals to data privacy issues. For instance, many global researchers rely primarily on various data sets, introducing the notion that they should openly share this data. Still, the primary concern is that these researchers are given little guidance on the concept of data privacy. It has been a common scenario mainly in developing countries, which many people have feared. They are afraid that it might lead to breaching confidentiality with the claim that the infrastructure used is not up to the standards. There are no safe storage devices for data collection. Therefore as much as data collection leads to positive developments in the country or an organization, data privacy should remain top-notch.

Data is generated every time one makes a transaction, purchase commodities, or receive other services like healthcare. This has always been the case, but data collection has increasingly automated over the past 20 years. Also, the major contributory factor to the increase in data collection is the technological advancement whereby data can be stored in digital formats (Pisani et al., 2016). The data collected from the citizens are compelling regarding governmental developments. It could be used during research because they contain a wide range of information about a whole population.

Furthermore, digital data storage has increased the potential use of the data and increased the computing power, making it easier to study the data and find actionable insights. This has influenced the decisions made in the public and private sectors. However, the primary concern is data usage, storage, and authenticity in who has access to them since data privacy has been a significant issue.

Therefore, data collection is essential, especially for the organizations and governmental premises, since the type and quality of data that that organization has collected could sometimes influence the core functions and time pressure in service delivery. There are numerous types of data collected. The administrative ones are only collected as a by-product of the operational requirements and which, in most instances, will include the core information like the client contact details (Strain et al., 2017). This has been significantly influenced by the people or organizations gathering data items and the nature of the information collected. This has limited most organizations from requesting data about individual sexual orientation and cultural background, which may not seem to be an operational requirement. This has influenced the type of data collected, making organizations collect a narrow range of data items that lacks sufficient details for broader secondary use purposes. Also, the research conducted by Madden and Rainie (2015) depicted that "93% of adults say that being in control of who can get information about them is important; 74% feel this is very important, while 19% say it is somewhat important…At the same time, 90% say that controlling what information is collected about them is important– 65% think it is very important, and 25% say it is somewhat important." This has led to people claiming that they do not need to be observed without consent. Also, this is a significant threat to the people since some institutions collecting personal data do not have the infrastructure or capacity to ensure the data collected are secured and protected all the time. This is so, especially in institutions where budget is a major concern. They lack sufficient funds to upgrade their records management systems because the updates and upgrades are very expensive and take time. Thus, compromising their data privacy and security leads to confidential data exposure to third parties.

The topic of privacy has been very common. In addition, the concept of privacy, in comparison to other human rights, is relatively new to most people. Still, its complexity outweighs most of the standard measures that have been enacted to protect it. Privacy is linked mostly to one's style of living and the technology they interact with more often (Wieczorkowski & Polak, 2017). Recently, Facebook was fined $5 billion for not ensuring it protects people's data, making many people sensitive about data collection. There are numerous ways to collect data, especially with digital media. For instance, when one mobile phone contains their phone number, or your internet provider regularly monitors what you do on the internet, it becomes an invasion of privacy. The whole concept of data collection is subjected to data privacy, exposing people to more threats and harms. The data that people feed online so that they can be granted permission to use particular services tell them prevalence and tracking. Also, there have been claims about companies collecting individual data in that they say it is to profile customers and potentially target sales based on customer traits and habits. However, several claim that these organizations are selling this data to other third parties.