¶ … component graded.
The amassing of data has become an integral process of life in the 21st century (Nunan and Di Domenico, 2013, p. 2). This fact is partially reflected by the fact that in contemporary times, people are generating much more data than they previously did. Every time someone goes shopping and makes a purchase with a credit card, receives a call or sends a text message, or visits a web site on a computer or downloads information to a mobile phone application, they are generating data. This data is stored and, through sophisticated processes of analytics that involve data mining and even predictive capabilities, is analyzed to determine aspects of consumer, individual, and collective behavior. The generation of these massive quantities of data in the myriad forms such data takes at the rapidity of real-time access is known as big data, which government representatives claim they are analyzing to prevent terrorist acts. Nonetheless, a look at some of the most pertinent issues regarding the storage and analytics of big data reveals that in a quite subtle way, the amassing and analysis of this data is slowly eroding basic rights to privacy afforded to citizens in the United States.
Most people did not become aware of the term Big Data and its implications until the Edward Snowden Security breach of the National Security Agency (NSA). Snowden revealed some little known facts to Americans, namely that records from their phone calls, emails, and internet activity was being stored, analyzed, and monitored by the government (Hackett, 2013, p. 27). Moreover, he posed his elucidation of these facts within the context in which he viewed himself as a patriot and was helping Americans to realize that there was a possible abuse of these technologies -- mobile, telephone, and the internet -- and that their privacy might be suffering as a result. However, within the wake of these revelations...
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