Privacy is one of the most important ethical issues we have today. Privacy and the protection of personal data is something that is extremely valued by human beings. Without the control of our personal data and the outlet of our personal data, there’s always a fearful State of mind. However, as we advance in information technology the threat to our privacy also advances, which gives way for a lot of negative implications. This issue of privacy has become a very controversial topic in the world of IT. In Michael Zimmer’s paper “But the data is already public”, there’s a main concept titled Partial re-identification and withdrawal of dataset which talks about how the T3 research team decided to take a couple of steps in order to protect subject privacy on college students. This was because of concerns about the collection and releasing of detailed Facebook profile data. According to Zimmer, it included a review by their institutional review board, the removal of student names and identification numbers from the dataset. Furthermore, there were complications that had to do with other researchers agreeing to a “terms and conditions for use” that stopped any attempts to “ re-identify subjects, to disclose any identities that might be inadvertently re-identified, or otherwise to compromise the privacy of the subjects”. Even though these steps were taken, they were unsuccessful in keeping the data safe enough for no one to be able to connect any individuals to an identity. When one takes a look at this case, the GDPR almost seems to be a necessity in order to ensure that users’ data is safe. It will urge organizations to ensure that personal data is gained legally and under strict conditions, and make sure that the companies that collect and manage it are held accountable on the matters of protecting it from being exploited or misused.
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