As we push forward into the information age, data and the aggregation of this data is becoming a more and more relevant issue in everyone’s lives. Companies collect and store user data, sometimes with the consent of the subject, sometimes without the consent, and sometimes completely unknowingly. When collecting data, entities need to be aware of the ethics concerns that may arise with the collection process. Privacy, Accuracy, Property, and Access of information are all key ethical concerns when dealing with information technology and the storage of data. The first concern, privacy, is the idea that information that is collected cannot be viewed by any unauthorized third party. In our current world, the monetization of user data is a serious ethical issue, and companies and entities that adhere to privacy principals can ensure the satisfaction of those who have had their data collected and stored. The second concern is accuracy. Be it in a hospital setting where the accuracy of information is literal life and death, or on a social media site where information can be public or private, as designated by the user, accuracy of information is a concern. Inaccurate data about a user can have many negative effects with varying levels of severity. Property, (intellectual property) is the idea that the data from a user is their own and shouldn’t be exploited as the intellectual property of another entity. This is relevant today as AI, which in its current state will usually regurgitate collected data found on the internet, can be and is currently used to help businesses make money. One can see the ethical concerns of a company monetizing off of the ideas of another person without credit and using their intellectual property without compensation. Access is the fourth ethical concern of data collection, which is the guarantee that a user who is granted access to the collected data will be able to access it. Many social media sites allow users to download their metadata. Many healthcare companies allow users to see all of the data that they are keeping about the user. This helps ensure trust and transparency between people and data collection entities, as if you don’t know what data is being collected about you, you don’t really know how intrusive it may or may not be.

Cybersecurity in other countries: How does it differ from the US?

The United States is seen as a pioneer in many business, technology, and even cybersecurity innovations. With that, the US does have it’s own unique concerns. Due to the nature of the US, intellectual property from companies, secret data by the military, and a public that has constant and consistent access to the internet, a level of cybersecurity persistence must be kept at all times by cybersecurity personnel. One major difference between cybersecurity in the US and cybersecurity in other nations is the sheer amount of cyberattacks that occur in the US (65% of all cyberattacks, according to Bruce Sussman of Blackberry). This is likely due to the amount of people connected to and intertwined within the internet. The US military, widely regarded as one of the most advanced militaries in the world, has tight cybersecurity in order to protect secret data and ensure the uptime of critical defense systems. Other nations with a lesser internet-connected population doesn’t need to allocate the amount of resources to cybersecurity that the US (and other large countries, like China, India, and Japan) does. While it is still important to have a functioning cybersecurity infrastructure, other nations don’t need to spend and allocate resources like the US needs to.