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Tosan Okome
Professor John Garner
Philosophy 2020
10 April 2017

Ethical Issues in Web Data Mining

The concept of the internet was developed in the early seventies but widely used in the
mid-90s. The internet has allowed us to access varies kinds of information from media, news,
pictures, and share information with others; the internet has really shaped our society today. It
has allowed us to gain more knowledge about certain topics and events. Whenever something is
introduced into society, there will be advantages and disadvantages toward it. “Web data mining
is a technique used to crawl through various web resources to collect required information,
which enables an individual or a company to promote business, understanding marketing
dynamics, new promotions floating on the internet” (Web Date Mining, 1). This process invades
personal information online because one doesn’t know how their information will be used or if
it’s in the right person’s hands. This potentially poses a huge threat to someone’s identity. On the
other hand, web data mining can be used in a good way that doesn’t hurt people, for instance
when corporations that specialize in retail mine to gain more knowledge to see what consumers
like and dislike. When it comes to web data mining I’m not for it because it jeopardizes one’s
identify and could possibly lead to destroying who they are. Web data mining is a growing issue
around the world that needs to be enforced more.
The use of personal data that has been classified by the person and is compromised by
someone other than the person leads to identity threats which disrupt someone’s normative
values. Personal data is confidential information which includes one’s name, address, email,
phone numbers, occupation, gender, social security and more. When certain actions like this
occur, it is known as violating one’s privacy because the person in unaware of the situation.
Someone could try to impersonate a person through web data mining if there aren’t able to gain
access to something by themselves. For example, someone mining information off the internet to
use for a credit card application because they don’t have the qualifications to possess one. It is
only okay to possess one’s information if and only one has permission to do so. Protecting
privacy and identity is a number one priority to protect. There are several laws in place and
organization which specialize in protecting one’s identity. The problem is that certain individuals
don’t follow the rules or are in desperate times in where they need to use one as a “mere means”
to get whatever they desire which is wrong according to Immanuel Kant principles of Humanity.
Web data mining typical occurs through individuals in most recent cases such as when hackers
released classified government information on WikiLeaks about ongoing investigations or
projects. Additionally, there two forms of data mining either content and structure or usage
mining. Content and structure mining is information taken off people’s homepage that is made
public which is legal. On the other hand, usage mining which is the most common form of data
mining in where when a consumer visits a website of any kind, his/her IP address is traced and
record on a web data log so whatever the consumer views or purchases on the website are being
recorded. Even though, their IP address is being recorded they don’t know who the person is
stated by several corporations. The company might mention this but most the time it’s fabricated
because one eventually begins to receive emails and promotion letters sent to their address about
the whatever they viewed online which violates their privacy.
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Web data mining effects one’s individuality in various effects when their information is
used without their consent. When organizations and individuals take information without
permission it is comparable to his philosophy on what one needs to follow to have moral sex.
Furthermore, “Individuality can be described as the quality of being an individual – a human
being regarded as a unique personality” (Royakkers, 133), in the western part of the world
people care about how people look at them, one wants to be remembered as that accommodating
or respectable person and nothing undesirable. With this at hand, profiling is something that
could happen with web data mining which could possibly lead to one being dehumanized based
on the information found instead of getting to know the person for who they are. This will
significantly hurt the person when it comes to making decisions or policies pertaining to the
issue at hand. Because of web data mining, people look at future employers, friends or just
people as mere exchangeable objects instead of human. Yes, people do make mistakes that they
eventually learn from but one has no right to dig up information of that nature and use it to
profile the person. This leads to the people being discriminated against people because of A or B
and so on or “being labelled as a member of a group or by being labelled as an individual with
certain characteristics. Some criteria, like race and religion, can be inappropriate and
discriminatory to use in decision- making” (Royakkers, 133). For many years, there have been
many laws implemented into protecting the people from such actions.
When conducting my research on the ethical issues in web data mining, the authors, Lita
van Wel and Lambe`r Royakkers provided six possible arguments to make for web data mining.
The argument that stuck out to me was “There are laws to protect private information. Besides,
privacy policies found on many websites guarantee privacy. So, why worry?” (Royakkers 134).
The author mentions how there are laws and policies to protect private information from
organizations and unauthorized individuals. There are several laws to protect private information
yet organizations still find ways to get the information they want without getting noticed by the
people or government because there using white collar hackers or third party companies who
remain under the radar. They access the information through servers without being noticed; there
so smooth. Even though there are walls built to keep them out; they find ways to enter. Once
they're spotted the assigned people who oversee security build another wall but they still seem to
find ways to enter. It’s a back and forth thing with them. The “current privacy laws only offer
protection for the misuse of identifiable personal data shows us that there is no legal protection
for the misuse of anonymized data used as if it were personal data” (34), therefore these policies
are ineffective and don’t protect the people. The government needs to enforce and make policies
stricter. Other problems faced with these policies are there often vague and ambiguous about
certain points. Do you notice when reading the disclosure statement for many organizations;
there incredibly long and so small that it stresses the human eye? Corporations need to make
their privacy declarations to be more effective in where it doesn’t compromise the consumer’s
identity. They say they’re not selling or giving information to third party companies but how are
they receiving our information, probably it’s time to clean house and crack down what’s going
on.
Individuals can protect themselves against web data mining by simply being cautious
when online by using privacy enhanced technologies and by being cautious when providing
personal information. Users should make sure they have some form of anti-virus program on
their devices to prevent from pop-ups from appearing. Some of these pop-ups are hackers trying
to get into your server and once one accepts it them in. When it appears on your system simply
click out of it. One need to make themselves familiar with the privacy policies for websites
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because they change and vary per establishment. There hasn’t been really an answer to web data
mining because it’s developing to higher and higher states per second. To collectively stop web
data mining on an organizational, social legal and cultural level we must come to together and
voice our concern with the issue at hand. We need to make advances in this area. The
disadvantage to data mining is once your information is compromised and used for something
one didn’t authorize you will be responsible majority of the time depending on the establishment
to repay or whatever the matter is at hand. We must stop treating people as mere means when
mining information online because it jeopardizes their relationships in various aspects on their
lives.

Word Count: 1387

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Bibliography

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