First of all, I think it is very important to read the terms and conditions. For this assignment, I looked at the terms and conditions for Amazon devices. I was curious because I have a kindle fire and the Kindle app on most of my devices. After reading through all of the terms, I found a few of the data collection systems surprising.
It may not be shocking for some to find out that Amazon keeps track of the users location through the device at all times, but I did not know that. This would definitely be useful for the obvious reason that you need an accurate location if you are going to use any kind navigation. If you loose your device, this would allow you to locate it. Also, in more extreme situations, this kind of feature would be helpful.
There was a story recently about a girl who was abducted by her boyfriend. She was able to text her mother to let her know that she was in danger. Her mother then contacted the police and they were able to find the girl with the “Find My iPhone” app (Toobin, 2016). With Amazon’s location feature this kind of situation could be resolved in the same way. However, there is a downside to this. If someone with more nefarious purposes in mind had access to this information, they would know where you are at all times.
For example, recent investigations have shown that the Facebook Messenger app shows your exact location each time a message is sent (Plenke, 2015). The good news is that this feature can be deactivated, but the question still remains. Can anyone find you? Theoretically, the answer is yes. There may be benefits to having this feature, but some may see the risk involved with using it is too great.
Another term allows the device to store your voice samples in a cloud service called Alexa (Amazon Terms and Conditions). It is supposed to help the devicesequipped with this feature be more accurate when you give it voice commands. The Fire TV has this feature, so a user does not have to type what they want in a search bar. I think for this strict purpose, it would be helpful. On the other hand, this would potentially allow the company to have access to your conversations and violate your privacy.
The last term I found very interesting stated that the company is allowed to store your personal information overseas. I supposed this would be helpful if the system crashed in the US and they need to restore your information. Knowing this does beg a very important question, “Who has access to this information once it stored abroad?” Box Inc. announced earlier this month that they are partnering with Amazon to allow customers to store their personal information abroad in what they are calling “Box Zones (McMillan, 2016).” Box Inc. is selling this feature as a good way to manage content but is it really. They could potentially use this content that they are storing for any number of things.
All in all, the data being collected through these devices can be used to better the customers operation of the devices. That does not mean the information is not also useful to other parties. If the information were distributed to the right people, the customer would be specifically targeted for ads based on what they like, what they have looked at, and what they talk about. Companies can also monitor where you are with the location feature, so they would know where you spend most of your time. This would make it easier for them to know where to target you for these ads. After all, if ads are sent to you in the place where you spend a lot of time, you are more likely to see them.
I do not think it is unethical to gather this information because it can be used for the right reasons. At the same time, information can also be used for the wrong reasons. It depends on the intent of the person or entity that is collecting it. That is why in the article about the Snowden case, the public had varying opinions about the ethics involved in the NSA collecting information like phone records (Verble, 2014). Furthermore, I do not think this is an instance of hacking because the point is that you are agreeing to these terms and conditions. People should not be shocked when they find out that this data is being collected from them. If anything, they should blame themselves for not taking the time to fully understand what they were committing to in the first place.That is why it is important to read through the terms and conditions anytime you sign up for something.
When the data being collected is not being used properly, it can become controversial quickly. In the Snowden case, there were some questionable things going on within the NSA. They were monitoring phone records without proper permission, but to say that this is data corruption would be inaccurate. After reviewing the case, it is clear that the NSA was spying on individuals (Verble, 2014). However, if this monitoring were to prevent the next terrorist attack, it cannot be said that it is necessarily a bad thing.
I think it is tough to say whether it is good to report data corruption if you happen to stumble on it. From the examples that we have looked at, it is easy to see that that the sort of thing never ends well. For example, Edward Snowden is only in his early 30s and he will never see his home again (Verble, 2014). It would have to be a life or death situation for me to make that kind of sacrifice. Anything less would definitely not be worth it. Unlike Snowden, it would also have to be done in a way that no one else would go down with me. He used some one else to get the information from the NSA and potentially ruined that person’s life (Verble, 2014). That would defeat the purpose of trying to fight corruption if you have to resort to that level to accomplish your goal.
That is why The Panama Papers incident is so different. This incident reflects a global problem. Light needed to be shed on this issue because it revealed the dirty dealings surrounding world leaders (CNN, 2016). This was not just a data collection; it was a manipulation of governments around the world. Issues like this are the ones that need to be dealt with. It would not be ethical to bring charges against the offending company because the information was technically stolen. Regardless, the information brought to the public’s attention through The Panama Papers was enough to put the situation into perspective (CNN, 2016).If nothing else, the situation raises a lot of questions that need to be answered.So, in this situation, it was worth the personal risk to the individual who exposed the information. It is difficult to say whether or not it will make a difference in the end. The most important thing now is that the information is out there.
Works Cited
"The Panama Papers: 7 Things to Know." CNN. Cable News Network. Web. 27 Apr. 2016.
Verble, Joseph. "The NSA and Edward Snowden." SIGCAS Comput. Soc. ACM SIGCAS Computers and Society 44.3 (2014): 14-20. Web.
Person, and Robert McMillan. "Box Calls on Amazon, IBM to Store Overseas Data Locally." WSJ. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. <
"Voice Search and Alexa FAQ." Amazon.com Help: Voice Search FAQ. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. <
Person, and Max Plenke. "Here's How Anyone Can Stalk Your Exact Location Using Facebook Messenger." Mic. 2015. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. <
"Kindle Terms of Use." Amazon.in Help:. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. <
"How The 'Find My IPhone' Feature Found a Kidnapped Woman." Inverse. Web. 27 Apr. 2016. <