Data collection companies - Essay Example

This paper takes a stand that picking information of an individual from social websites without their permission is unethical. To defend this stand, this paper analyzes the impact of using unauthorized information that comes from social media. This paper also identifies a supporting argument in favor of using these types of information, and gives a counter argument against the argument. This paper has a conclusion, which is a summary of the main points that the paper addresses. Sharing personal information about an individual without their authorization can damage the reputation of the individual under consideration.

For example, a data collecting company can peruse through the facebook profiles of certain individuals, and find information concerning their sexual habits. Sharing this information with other organizations without their consent is disastrous. An organization can use this information for or against the individual concerned (Partridge, 33) . Take an instance if the individual is gay, and the information comes before anti-gay institutions. The impact of this action on the individual is damage to his or her reputation.

Another reason as to why this process is unethical is that doubts might emanate on the accuracy of the information the data collection company provides. . This aspect might lead to developing a policy by an organization that does not reflects the needs of the people whom it targets. Take an example where by the data collecting company has information about alcohol consumption habits amongst adults. If 70% of this information is inaccurate, an alcohol company relies on the information to market their products.

Using this information will lead to a flop in the marketing campaigns and strategy of the alcohol company. It is important for data collection companies to fairly process the information they acquire from social sites in a professional and ethical manner. On this basis therefore, if a company wants to share an individual’s personal information, then they should seek the consent of the individual concerned. It is only fair for the person to have a chance of determining how an organization uses his personal data.

However, other people disagree with my assertion that it is unethical for data collection companies to use the personal information of an individual derived from their social website pages. According to their argument, they denote that the information is already public, and therefore it is not a crime to sell such kind of information to organizations that want to use them (Partridge, 25). However, according to me, this argument is inaccurate and does not have facts to support it. This is because there are regulations that govern an individual when he or she opens an account with social sites.

For instance, some of these sites guarantee that the information they post will not be used for commercial purposes without their permission. On this basis therefore, for a data company to