On March 23rd Senators passed a bill that will allow Internet Service Providers (ISPs) such as AT&T and Comcast to collect your personal data, browsing data, and more, to sell to companies. Some of the information includes your social security number, information on minors, your location, and more. As outraged as you should be you should know that companies have been doing this for years under our noses with a technique called data mining. Data mining is when someone collects a large amount of data on a person or group of people online through various means to sell it, advertise information based on that data, gain insight, or more. This has been done by large companies well before the internet, however, it is easier than ever now. This is an epidemic that needs to be stopped for the sake of everyone’s privacy. 

Social media sites have made it incredibly easy to mine their data. Most major social media companies have created various programming tools to allow people take the data from their site to use. Not only this but some major online sites like Google have been mining our data to sell to others. All of this, however, is part of a larger scene that desperately needs legislation put against it to limit its freedom, corporate data mining. Corporate data mining is the data mining of major corporations that have limitless freedom to collect whatever data they please, without the consent of anyone who’s data they take and do whatever they want with it. Because of the range of options in which they can collect this information, the fact that they need no consent when collecting your data, the way terms and conditions are set up on the sites that your data is being mined from, and the power of this data, data mining done by corporations need to have some of their power checked.  

Back in 2012 Target was able to figure out a teen girl was pregnant before anyone in her family did. This was because Target had been collecting data on the products she was buying (unbeknownst to her) and giving her a maternity score, or likelihood she was pregnant from what items she bought. They began sending her coupons for expecting mothers which led to her family finding out that she was in fact pregnant. This was done not by buying products online but by shopping in the store so you can see just how easy it is to leave a data trail.  Target has since even added a new and more innovative way since then on how it can track our purchases. They have an app called Cartwheel that allows shoppers to scan their items and look for potential coupons. Then based off this data they push “special” coupons to try and get you in the store and buy more of their products. Target is not alone on this matter though. Major retailers across the board are collecting the data of what we buy through various means. These major retailers are just one of the few mining our data though.      

Data Mining is a great idea that allows researchers and other groups to collect vast amounts of data incredibly easily. The problem is the way in which these groups are gaining their data is not ethical. Michael Zimmer argues shows an example of this when researchers unethically data mined users of the OKCupid dating website. These researchers created an account that would allow them to see all the information on people using the site and went through this account to obtain all that information. The problem is, when they were collecting this data there was no way that the people whose data was being mined could consent to this information being taken by them. Michael argues that when researchers take this information from users there should be some form of notice saying your data was used in that study. By not having anything in place to keep researchers from doing this, it is how most research using data mining gets done. Social media in general, is a platform that makes it incredibly easy to mine the data of its users. 

A large problem many companies, especially these Social Media companies, have is they purposely make awful Terms and Conditions. Daniel Hulme talks about this in his TEDx talk briefly. He tells a story on how roughly 250 people didn’t read the Terms and Conditions for a free Wi-Fi service. The reason this was so evident was because in the Terms and Conditions they relinquish rights to their first born to the company. Terms and conditions are purposely written in a way to make it confusing for people to read. These companies don’t want you to know that when you sign them you are giving them the right to view everything you do on their site, sell this information to other companies, and push information based on your viewing habits. Terms and Conditions need to be revised, but how? David Hume suggests we treat Terms and Conditions like nutritional facts on the back of food products. Have everything laid out in a neat concise order that allows the user to know exactly what they are agreeing to in seconds, rather than just skipping through and blindly accepting. This would make the sites and companies rework some of the terms that they are trying to hide in their terms and conditions, as well as give you a better idea of what you are agreeing to.  

When companies advertise based on your search history it is one of the least dangerous things they can do. The fact that companies can get your browsing history through data mining is incredibly dangerous. Andre Oboler argues in Social Media could Lead to Violations of Privacy, data mining could even affect the election in this way. By gaining your internet history, search engines could specifically push information to cater to your browsing history that puts their candidate of choice of choice in the light. Your browser history is something that is incredibly valuable. The fact that ISPs can sell it now won’t change the way in which many of these corporations have been getting it for years now. Many companies already have the tools available to get your browser history and have been selling it to advertisers and other large corporations for years. That is why these practices need to have law placed against them, preventing them from doing this. However, with all the problems associated with data mining, one group should have some leniency.  

The group most well-known for viewing everything you do online is the government. The NSA (National Security Agency) is incredibly famous for how they can take most of our data, publicized mostly by Snowden. However, is the inherit danger of the government combing through your data nearly as dangerous as corporations? Paul Pillar says no in his article Big Data, Public and Private. Paul argues that the government has rules and regulations in which they can obtain our data, corporations however, do not. Corporations can use any means they choose to obtain all our information while lawmakers have put in place regulation, much like the ones just appealed on ISPs, on the government keeping them in check. If corporations had to have the same rules placed against them when data mining as the government does, your information would be much safer online. Although there are many who disagree with this stance.   

Many people are very much against the government mining and collection our online data. Shane Harris from National Journal wrote about this topic and said things like “the NSA isn’t authorized to data mine” (Harris) and talks about the lack of safeguards because the software does not block the names and addresses of the people whose data they are mining. The government currently does not have anything saying they are unauthorized from data mining. Whether this is for better or for worse, the Patriot Act helped give them the ability to be authorized to data mine. Also, the fact that there is no way to data mine without seeing the names and addresses of the people is irrelevant. The point of this is to look for patterns and trends in the data to identify a threat. No human should be deciding based on the name or address of a person whose data they are mining. Rather, it should all be left up to the computer to determine if there is a threat or not. Although, data mining is also a topic that needs more discussion on the legislative side. 

Data mining in corporations is a huge issue that needs to have laws passed against, not make it easier for greedy corporations to steal more of our information. The fact that these ISPs can legally bribe senators into passing a bill that denies us of our freedom is absolutely preposterous. Now is when we need to not only speak to our representatives in the House to stop this bill, but push to create new legislation limiting the use of data mining. Because of how easily they can collect this information, the fact that they need no consent when collecting your data, and problems with terms and conditions, data mining being done by corporations needs to have some set of guidelines they must follow, like the government.

Whereas Government collecting our data is not something I’m a huge fan of, they have a specific set of guidelines they must adhere by and are doing so to help protect us. These corporations are getting all our data and making money off it without having to abide by any rules. I feel the main driving force that could cut back on much of what they are getting away with is an updated form of terms and conditions as stated above. These documents are set in place to be purposely confusing and an annoyance keeping you from using whatever software you are trying to use. So, we scroll through them without reading, but agreeing to terms that strip us of our online privacy. Therefore, if we were to put rules in place that made websites and companies specifically lay out what you are agreeing to in an easy, readable, and streamline fashion, they would have to make major drawbacks to the amount of data mining going under the table. 
