Private Sector-Public Sector Cybersecurity Issues
Andrew T. Bouley
Professor: Choi
6/28/2015

Table of Contents

I. Question 1 1. Introduction ………………………………..….………………………………………..3 2. Uber……………………………………………….…………………………………….3 3. Google ……………………………………………………….………..……………..3-4
II. Question 2 1. Internet Privacy…..…………………….……………………………………………… 4 2. Shopping Choices……………….……………………………………………….….. 4-5
3. Lifestyle Habits………………………………..………………………………………. 5
III. Question 3 1. Geographic Location……….………….……………………………………………… 6 2. Terms and Conditions………………...……………………………………………...6-7
IV. Question 4 1. Public Support………………………….……………………………………………… 7 2. Private Support….……………….………………………………………………….. 7-8
V. Question 5 1. Human Involvement……..…………….……………………………………………… 8 2. Marketing Strategies…………….…………………………………………………….. 9
VI. References 1. Rijmenam, M….……………………………………………………………………... 10 2. Hirson, R…………………………………………………….……………………….. 10 3. K.N.C. ……………………………………………………………………………..… 10 4. Hattem, J. .……………………………….………………………………………….. 10

Local restaurant recommendations, personalized ads, enticing offers that seem to be the perfect suggestion. It is fairly common for these types of scenarios to take place and it all is thanks to Big Data. Big Data allows companies to catalog and mine through huge amounts of web files to help them understand their clientele, competitors, and even in Google’s case the web itself. Most large companies seem to love it; it makes their lives easier, marketing simpler and their suggestions more meaningful, however that isn’t always the case with the general public. Before delving deeper one needs to understand why a company needs this type of data, the two companies to be analyzed will be Uber and Google.
Uber has recently been growing into a very large contender in the Big Data market. Their first use benefits themselves directly, Uber has information on all if its drivers, where they live, where they travel, where they eat as well as the type of car they travel in depending on the fare price. Uber can then use this information to ensure they have the right types of drivers in the right area. Their second benefit comes from being able to sell this data to potential partners who may be interested in the same facts. For example Marriott may be very interested to know that someone allows visiting DC by Uber Black Car typically stays at a Hyatt. When Uber partners with a business they can receive customer approval to share data and create wonderful marketing partnerships.
Google on the other hand uses Big Data as its main function. Google uses big data to index pages and crawl the web in order to build the most comprehensive search platform available that acts more like a human mind than a search program. Big Data not only allows Google to function but also generates a lot of their income. Google is able to track everything that a user searches for when they are on the web and when the user is signed into Google+ they are able to log that information to your account. Google then can take this information and sell it to their partners who offer personalized ads to the user. Big Data ensures that when using Google the user will have a tailored browsing experience based of their previous usage. This is a very important factor when Google is looking to sell marketing at a high dollar to other interested companies.
Google’s use of Big Data may seem harmless at first but in reality it can harm users in multiple ways. The first is that when custom tailoring a web search to the users previous web experiences they may be missing out on new and interesting opportunities. As a comparison if an individual eats at a restaurant and receives the same server every time and that server always recommends the same dish to the based of the customers previous taste they may never find something that they like even more or that could possibly generate even more revenue. The results that Google provide are also based on the amount of money that the marketing company is willing to provide, which means that smaller companies do not stand as much of a chance as being successful. (Rijmenam, 2015)
Big Data can also be pulled based on content, which means that websites that are not as modern and without as large of a budget may not be crawled and presented as sufficiently as other larger websites. The final way that this can hurt the user is through constant adds being displayed while on the Internet. This is mentioned last as adds would be available regardless, but Google’s policies all but ensure other companies will purchase space to make their adds available. Google’s Big Data use not only allows them to function but drives a lot of their profit and the harm to the user is minimal however the harm to smaller less mainstream business is much more noticeable.
Uber has a larger downside to the customer as the privacy breach has grown substantially. Instead of a company knowing what a user is searching for they can have access to a customers location, spots the frequent, the amount of money they are willing to spend on travel and much more. It should be noted that a customer needs to agree to these terms before releasing that information, however, most customers do not even consider this when clicking the submit button. Ron Hirson of Forbes validates this point by stating that there are only a few people that know his exact location on a regular basis and that Uber has recently been added to that list which previously only involved his wife, SIRI and the NSA. He mentions the fact how unsettling it can be to know that Uber knows when he leaves one state to travel to another for work and with which hotel he is staying when he arrives. After Starwood partnering with Uber, he notes that a stay in a competitor hotel usually earns him a drawn out marketing plot by Starwood to sway him the other way on his next stay. (Hirson, 2015)
Privacy has become a large problem for the public recently and with companies like Uber being able to provide that type of data on an individual it sparks a lot of debate on how the Government should respond and regulate control. The first way that I believe Government should step in revolves around geographic location. Companies such as Uber and Street Bump, an app that uses your smart phone to indicate potholes in the road by large bumps, rely on location to be successful, but it can be said that this hurts the underprivileged areas where individuals may not be able to afford smartphones, this put the users who do have the luxury of a smartphone out of luck for a lot of potentially great services. (K.N.C., 2014)
I believe that on the ideal of equality companies should be restricted from collecting geographic location and using it to influence their technology or the services of another organization. From the previous example with street bump it was noted that areas that did not have access to smartphones were suffering from rougher roads since this information could not be relayed back to the city. This also hurts smaller business that are not able to spread their reach as far as larger big box stores that can pay the marketing and place down new stores based of the information they are buying from companies such as Uber. If the government prevented the use of location to influence business these situations would not be an issue. (K.N.C., 2014)
The second space where the Government has an opportunity to step in is with the Terms and Conditions acceptance. K.N.C. of The Economist argues that the government should enforce regulation to create a more concise and easier to understand terms and conditions section that highlights the main points. This would allow the public to understand exactly where this data was being used and how it was being retrieved.
Lawmakers have taken a growing interest in Big Data as it is becoming more publicly recognized and as privacy has become a larger national concern. Politicians have a tricky role to play, as they need to be on the side of the public since they are the voting body, but they also want to be on the side of the big business and private industry since they are the ones that provide a lot of their funding for their campaigns. The public likes to see the Government step in and protect them from big business and on that note Lawmakers are trying to ensure that they provide regulation to govern the privacy of their voting congregation. They have even gone so far as to make it one of their selling points by indication that Big Data is being used for discrimination. Representative Jim McDermott said, “Now, we learn that data collected by the private sector could be used to discriminate against vulnerable individuals…I will be calling for further investigation into this urgent issue. 'Potential discrimination' is intolerable and I am concerned that this news may be just the tip of the iceberg.” (Hattem, 2014) Statements like this require the other politicians to react and either take the same or opposing side, where in the name of public privacy most will side with the public. All of the above being said, politicians still want to ensure they do not restrict Big Data too much as a lot of their funding comes from companies that use these tactics in order to be successful. If they were to restrict Big Data too much there would be a possible cut in support from the industries that rely on it so heavily, which in most cases is the largest and most profitable. For politicians, it makes sense for them to stay on the middle ground and not provide any drastic changes. If tighter regulations do emerge it will cause companies that rely on Big Data to change the way that they operate. The first change will be the introduction of more staff. Big Data retrieval is a mostly automated process that can sift through huge amounts of data in a time that not even the most experience team could match. This means that companies will need to rework their marketing departments as well as their R&D sections to ensure that they are following the new laws properly. This type of change could also create a lot of harm to companies such as Uber that do not have the current space of plan to include a larger number of staff members. Since a lot of their new business is coming from the sale of information and partnerships formed around the information they possess it could even require the drastic change of a business model. Tighter regulations could also affect the way that many organizations today are currently marketing. If they do not have the ability to provide advertisements to the customers that are actively searching for related products in the surrounding area or on the web they will need to revert to previous tactics. Although this will hurt the larger big box companies it could, in fact, provide the smaller business an equal chance to gain the same business. Big Data has provided a lot of companies with a very easy and thoughtless plan to market their business on the web, but much of that could be changed with the introduction of a few laws. Big Data definitely has the opportunity to create a lot of tension in the future especially from the standpoint of the public vs. Large Businesses looking to sell their data. But, there is also a potential to see frustrations begin to emerge from small business owners that do not have the resources to buy into the trend or the knowledge to do it for themselves. The Government is going to have to make a decision on if they are going to want to stand on the side of businesses that use Big Data to create revenue or with the public that believes they are in an unfair situation where their privacy is at risk.

References

Rijmenam, M. (2015) How Google Applies Big Data to Know You Retrieved from: https://datafloq.com/read/google-applies-big-data-infographic/385
Hirson, R. (2015) Uber: The Big Data Company. Retrieved from: http://www.forbes.com/sites/ronhirson/2015/03/23/uber-the-big-data-company/ K.N.C. (2014) Rules for The New Tools Retrieved from: http://www.economist.com/blogs/democracyinamerica/2014/05/regulating-big-data Hattem, J. (2014) Lawmakers pledge to dive into ‘big data’. Retrieved from:
http://thehill.com/business-a-lobbying/204500-lawmaker-concerned-by-big-data-possibilities