The Ethics Quandary of Data Mining; the Cost of Free vs. Personal Privacy

The Ethics Quandary of Data Mining; The Cost of Free vs. Personal Privacy

Introduction:

“Tech's original Great Satan calls out Google for being evil” (1)

This is a very polarizing topic as the preceding headline would suggest. It shows that a lot of people are very angry and upset about “their” information being used for another’s gain. When in reality, it is not “their” information per say that is being used. (2) What I would like to do with this paper is explain the economics of “Free” services that companies such as ours offer, and how we pay for those costs through advertising, while still maintaining the privacy of our user base. This will not be your normal finger pointing, my way or the highway explanation. We do understand people’s concerns for their privacy, and we want to show you that we do understand by the policies that we have in place. (3) In return, we would like that same level of understanding from those who think advertising and data mining is wrong, so that we can explain that the only way for a company to exist and provide services it to be able to sell a product or a service to generate revenues.

The cost of Free:

Before we start talking about costs, let’s talk about what we are providing free of charge to any consumer that want to experience the best on the web. Google offers a vast array of web products and services, from the best search engine on the planet to the world’s most versatile email system, to enterprise document, collaboration, and communication services. For this paper let’s just stick to the internet search engine and the Gmail email system.

Now let’s delve into the costs that are involved in providing the web services that we offer. (4) Google uses highly proprietary servers, modified open source operating system software and web services because we care so much about keeping the data safe, as well as keeping performance levels up. Our data centers cost up to three times as much as other data centers...