With the National Security Agency (NSA) leaks in the news, data mining and
privacy have become forced to the forefront of many discussions lately. According to a global survey, 80% were
concerned about their internet privacy. But,
do people really want privacy? Consider how quick we are to share almost all our
personal information that is not only stored on our smart phones, but all of
our texts and phone records, as well as social media postings, for the sake of
convenience.
The indifference some people display for marketing purposes may seem
harmless enough. Who doesn’t want a 50%
off coupon on an item they may purchase regularly? Trading one’s personal data for convenience
or discounts may seem like a healthy two-way relationship between the producer
and consumer.
But what about the government peeking into your shopping habits, personal
contacts, or messages? While law abiding
citizens may not be too concerned, if at all, about government data mining
since they claim that they are not doing anything illegal, they may want to
reconsider the consequences of being snared in an investigation. According to an annual watchdog report in the
U.K., 979 people were erroneously caught up in data mining operations in 2012. While most errors were realized before any
action was taken, six were not. Five of the six were erroneously arrested and
charged with crimes.
Even after the falsely accused are cleared of any wrong doing, the damage
to one’s reputation could be damning. Richard Jewel was falsely accused of
planting the bomb during the 1996 Olympics in Atlanta because he fit the FBI
profile of a lone bomber. He then had to spend years trying to rebuild
his reputation even though he was quickly cleared of any wrong doing.
Though he was actually credited for saving lives as the security guard who
noticed and called in the suspicious package containing the pipe bomb, his name
was splashed across the media throughout the world as a suspect and the butt of
many late-night comedic jokes.
While Richard Jewel is an example of an extreme case of being falsely
accused, many companies require a background check for employment. It isn’t too difficult to imagine how far the
application would go if the results came back that you were arrested on
national security issues. A notation of “charge
dismissed” on the report may not mean much. In addition, many professional firms, such as
the Big 4 firm where I’m currently employed, require an annual affidavit that,
among other things, attests that I have not been part of any criminal investigation. A positive answer could lead to reduced
assignments or even termination. So
should I, as a law abiding citizen, be concerned?
Among the revelations of the recent NSA leaks regarding phone records and
email logs are that the NSA use social media to create social map connections
to enhance their analysis capability.
The results could tell an extraordinary amount about you…or possibly
make connections that may not be there. While
the intent is to discover and track connections from a foreign suspect to
American citizens, this could be problematic at most, and invasive at least,
for those with a large international social network such as myself.
I still keep in touch through social media with many friends that where
made while I was in the Navy, many who are still active duty and now stationed
throughout the world. In addition, my current
employer is a multinational firm that encourages international rotations and I
now have social media contacts from colleagues who have returned to Russia,
Ukraine, Romania, Singapore and Nigeria. Also, I recently returned from a summer
semester abroad in Europe where I lived next to and took classes with students
from all over the world with different political views.
Many are now included in my social media such as a fellow student from
Turkey who one night during a student party, while casually scrolling through
his iPhone, wearing a Polo shirt, Levi jeans and Nike tennis shoes, bluntly
told me he was anti-American. After composing myself and pointing out the fallacy of his statement, we enjoyed
many nights in spirited debate on economic and political ideology and are friends
on Facebook, but now I have to be concerned of some bizarre six degrees of
Kevin Bacon game if he or any of my social media friends, or possibly their
friends, become a national security interest.
The months following 9/11, the U.S. government was accused of failing to
connect the dots leading up to the attack which resulted in Congress passing the
USA Patriot Act that provides provisions authorizing many of the data mining
techniques used by the NSA today.
According to President Obama, "You can't have 100% security and
also then have 100% privacy and zero inconvenience. We're going to have to make some choices as a
society." (Cohen, 2013)
I guess one of those choices is to choose your friends wisely…networking
be damned.
Sources:
Cohen, Tom, “Data mining revelation opens political Pandora's box”,
CNN.com (June 9, 2013), http://www.cnn.com/2013/06/07/politics/data-mining-after-9-11/index.html,
Accessed September 21, 2013
Moglen E., “The Tangled Web We Have Woven”, Communications Of The
ACM February 2013;56(2):20-22. Available from: Business Source Complete,
Ipswich, MA. Accessed September 20, 2013
Singel, Ryan, “Newly Declassified Files Detail Massive FBI Data-Mining
Project”, Wired.com (September 2009).
http://www.wired.com/threatlevel/2009/09/fbi-nsac. Accessed September
21, 2013
Spiekermann, Sarah, “The Challenges of Privacy by Design”. Communications
of The ACM”. July 2012;55(7):38-40
Travis, Alen, “Six people falsely accused of crimes after errors in
internet data disclosure”, TheGuardian.com (July 18, 2013), http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2013/jul/18/people-falsely-accused-internet-data-disclosure,
Accessed September 30, 2013
