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December 05, 2006
Privacy Issues
According to Richard O. Mason’s article, “Four Ethical Issues of the Information Age,” there are four major issues stemming from the easy access of information on the Internet. Mason refers to these as PAPA—Privacy, Accuracy, Property, and Accessibility. A situation where PAPA is relevant is the simple of creating an Amazon.com account. While Amazon promises that your personal activity will be kept confidential, your searches, bids, buys, posts, and participation are all maintained in the Amazon database. Additionally, your contact info, including your name, email address, shipping address, and payment methods are also stored by Amazon. You may have also provided them with the contact information of your friends and family, via the Address Book option or simply by shipping orders to these individuals. Their ability to draw associations between certain data and collect data from other companies is a threat of exposure referred to as “minute description” by Mason, allows Amazon. This potential invasion of privacy is becoming more of an issue the Internet becomes increasingly available. All individuals who readily supply any type of personal information on the Internet ought to be aware of these threats.
In our opinion, it is a little unsettling that so much of our personal information is available online, but as consumers, we appreciate the convenience of not having to enter the same information repeatedly. A feature on Amazon that we find particularly useful is the “Wish List,” which allows us to easily find out what our family and friends would like for the holidays. This feature would not be possible without storing information online.
Posted by stwiener at December 5, 2006 06:40 PM