According to the article, the European Commission has distributed a data protection plan throughout the European Union in order to transition Europe into the digital age, which is known as the General Data Protection Regulation, or GDPR. The GDPR is essentially a set of new guidelines that allow European Union individuals to have greater control over their personal information by alerting local businesses that they must guarantee their customers’ personal data is acquired through safe procedures and safeguarded under rigorous state regulations. The European Union’s new privacy policy mandates that individuals be informed about their privacy. On May 25, the balance of power will change in favor of the customer. The General Data Protection Regulation emphasizes the importance of consumers being informed of how personal information about them is being handled. This legislation protects Europe’s 28 member countries. The question now is whether the United States should go forward with it. The United States does not prohibit cross-border data transfers; nevertheless, certain data may be restricted but not all. Individual data protection is a personal right guaranteed by the EU but not by the US. As a result, in order to secure information, the United States should adopt European privacy legislation. In this case analysis, I would argue that the ethics of care ethical tool shows us that the United States should adopt Europe’s new privacy laws because the creation of moral policies and moral institutions will prioritize the protection of citizens over these corporations.

            Throughout the summary, I will concentrate on one or more of Michael Zimmer’s concepts from the article “But the data is already public.” The first notion presented by Zimmer in this essay is the introduction and major goal of the T3 project. The T3 project, also known as the “Taste, Ties, and Time” project, was founded in the fall of 2008 by a few researchers affiliated with the Berkman Center of Intern and Society by constructing a dataset that consists of a large quantity of profile information from Facebook accounts that also includes a large number of Harvard college students. Instead of exploiting these private data for their own personal and financial benefit, they took every effort to conceal the student’s personal information and preserve the privacy of their customers’ data. However, this strategy initially failed since the source of each student’s data was easily recognized and tracked back to their alma mater, Harvard College. Despite the failure of the project, Zimmer’s primary concept of privacy is that the data utilized, shared, or exposed by an individual should be protected because it is his personal right. Personal data privacy and security should be cherished. He observed how private information is collected, shared, transported, and processed. If someone’s privacy is compromised without his knowledge, it is an ethical issue. The main factor observed here is deception. As a result, the EU privacy policy ensures that its consumers are aware of their privacy problems. Zimmer concentrated on reporting these issues, and the result is Europe’s new privacy regulation, as it has worked hard to ensure that their users’ information is protected, and their privacy is respected. The ethics of care ethical tool states that we take the necessary precautions to treat the people we care about with some level of partiality, which can be moral. A caring government is one that acknowledges it and its citizens’ mutual interdependence, and where both government and citizenry work for mutual flourishing. As citizens, we help these social media platforms when we sign up for and provide our private information hoping that in return, our privacy will be respected, and our information will be kept safe. These researchers cared about the privacy of the private data of the students from Harvard College and must have felt disappointed and upset that their data can be easily identified and located by outside sources without needing to resort to hacking into a student’s or teacher’s Facebook profile or scamming their profile by tricking them into giving the scammers. For example, when the “breach” happened with Facebook, Mark Zuckerberg tried to secretly deal with it by telling these companies to delete the leaked information instead of alerting customers of the possible breach and informing them of his efforts to protect their sensitive data. When you care about someone, you care about how your actions affect their lives and if these companies cared about their customers and their safety, they would take the necessary precautions needed to safeguard our private information. Given that the information gathered contains sensitive data like addresses, and more, effective, and rigorous privacy laws need to be put in place for the mutual benefit of both parties involved. 

            The first concept presented by Buchanan in the article, “Considering the ethics of big data research: A case of Twitter and ISIS/ISIL” was the use of the IVCC model on Facebook. The Iterative Vertex Clustering and Classification (IVCC) model, also known as the Iterative Vertex Clustering and Classification model, is a data search method mentioned by Matthew Curran Benigni, Kenneth Joseph, and Kathleen Carley that can locate supporters of ISIS (Islamic State of Iraq and Syria) or ISIL (Islamic State of Iraq and the Levant) on Twitter, Facebook, and other social media platforms. The IVCC approach allows for more accurate detection of specific users and cohorts in large data sets. With the method’s enhanced abilities to identify any individual or group within the social media platform’s networks, it could lead to any police, law enforcement, or intelligent agencies developing this method to identify and distort any suspicious activities or communications on Twitter for authority and security purposes. The method’s enhanced abilities to identify any individual or group within the social media platform’s networks, could lead to any police, law enforcement, or intelligent agencies developing this method to identify and distort any suspicious activities or communications on Twitter for authority and security purposes. This strategy, for me, is a moral gray area because on one hand, the law authorities could benefit from using the Iterative Vertex Clustering and Classification model for good, however, this same technology could be used to profile people which is not always a good thing. Without using the IVCC model to identify and trace the location of ISIL supporters or members, the results could be catastrophic to the United States as a whole. However, the police, law enforcements and intelligence agencies could also use the presence of ISIS/ISIL members on social media platforms as an excuse to do what everyone in this country fears; instead of focusing on the ISIS/ISIL members or supporters lurking on Twitter, they could either focus on everyone else as well as the ISIS/ISIL supporters and use their adversity to their advantage; or use their authority to hold anyone they suspect is a member of the ISIS/ISIL militarist group, even if it was a mistake or they lacked proof. If government agencies or these big companies apply the ethics of care to all individuals and promise transparency as it pertains to our private information and data, I believe that more people will feel safe. Although the use of IVCC can be beneficial for the nation, giving up our right to privacy will be a grave mistake. In this case, the ethics of care ethical tool still holds because false accusations that might occur as a result of the IVCC model can also destroy someone’s life. The IVCC model can help law enforcement agents do their job by identifying these terrorists however, law enforcement personnel also must do some actual investigations with the information they are given. Even without the IVCC model, innocent people are arrested all the time for crimes they did not commit so why should we trust the government with our sensitive data if they won’t care about the consequences that happen to innocent citizens?

To summarize, data ethics is concerned with the ethical treatment of data. My initial thoughts on this topic of data ethics, I believed that corporations who required users to agree to terms of agreements in order to use any social media platform should be held primarily responsible if one or more of their customers’ private data was released into the public domain. Nobody wanted their personal information to be made public so that everyone could access it because it put the unfortunate individual at risk of being harassed or worse, stalked by unknown sources. Trust is the basis of every caring relationship be it business or personal. Life is not perfect and as customers we know that there is a possibility that our information might get leaked however, we should know when our information has been compromised and what efforts are being made to keep our information private and properly safeguarded.