As we have seen, people are subject to extensive data collection online, both governmental and commercial. In class, we looked at a potential diagnosis of the situation according to which existing practices do not significantly undermine people’s privacy interests but run a serious risk of doing so. Your task is to argue against this position by motivating the claim that there is, currently, a significant problem. More specifically, you should do the following:
- Explain why privacy is important for individuals. Do this by drawing on the “privacy interests” discussed in class.
- Make the strongest case you can for the claim that the current situation in the United States does undermine certain important privacy interests of those who live here.
Note: which privacy interests you focus on are up to you; you do not need to cover all of them, and given the word limit, your paper may be stronger if you focus only on the privacy interest(s) you believe are most significantly compromised.
Word Limit: 1000 (Submissions which exceed 1000 words will be penalized by one third of a letter grade per 100 words. Citations do not count toward the word limit.)
Writing Requirements:
- This is a formal piece of writing, but it is not an essay. You do not need a formal introduction, thesis statement, or conclusion.
- But this time, you can no longer explicitly separate your answers to questions (1) and (2); they must flow together as a coherent piece of writing.
- One strategy for doing this: answer each question separately, and then write a few transitional sentences connecting your two answers into a single, coherent whole.
This assignment is due the end of day after session 13.
