Selling+databases

=Ethical issues related to the selling of data stored in databases=

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**Issues:**

 * **Privacy** - Personal Data being stored in databases; what data is allowed to be kept.
 * **Security** - Who has the right to access to the data stored

**Areas of Impact:**

 * **Science and the Environment:** This is an area of impact as it is a collection of data.
 * **Business and Employment:** This is an area of impact because Ecommerce is taking place as the data stored in databases are being sold. These are being sold by both individuals and businesses.

-Examples-
Royalty cards for supermarkets. Customers apply for these ‘beneficial’ royalty cards where they are able to gain discounts on products they purchase regularly. This information is stored in a database. There are cases where the Supermarket sells this data to marketing companies. These companies then send their promotional information to the customer. e.g. Nappies for babies to female customers who seem to have not purchased sanitary napkins for a few months; the company is able to assume that this customer is pregnant. With this, if the customer had a miscarriage yet was still receiving this information on products for new born, it could cause emotional trauma as the customer has lost her child, though the company wouldn’t know this.
 * Business and Employment:**

"Another example would be the selling of phone records – especially from cell phones. This is usually used by the government and FBI in order to track criminals and help solve crimes. Though now this is used for other reasons, such as stalking. For $110, Locatecell.com will provide you with the outgoing calls from his or her cell phone for the last billing cycle, up to 100 calls. All you need to supply is the name, address and the number for the phone you want to trace online, and you are able to get results within hours. "(Krim, 2005) To see the full article, please visit http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2005/07/07/AR2005070701862_pf.html
 * Business and Employment + Science and the Environment:**

"It is very simple to get the information which is stored in databases, just as long as you pay enough money. A famous newspaper; The Sun, hired an undercover detective to go to Delhi to buy personal data of customers in the UK. “Our undercover reporter Oliver Harvey was sold the top secret information on a thousand accounts, and numbers of passports and credit cards.” The information that was sold to the undercover reporter included account holders’ addresses, secret passwords, credit card details, passports and driving license information. In some cases there were also the issue and expiry dates of bank cards, as well as the three digit security number from the back of the card. This could then lead to arising issues of identity theft." (The Sun ) To see the full article, please visit http://www.thesun.co.uk/article/0,,2-2005280724,,00.html
 * Science and the Environmnet:**


 * Key Points:**
 * The information about you being sold by these brokers can include Social Security numbers, phone numbers, credit card numbers, and information about an individual's prescription medication, shopping habits, political affiliations and sexual orientations. (Senior Journal)
 * · Sometimes people are unaware that their information is being used for other purposes. When people sign up to memberships there is often an “opt-in” “opt-out” option where the customer decides whether they want their information to be shared or not. (Baase, 2003)
 * · By most laws, it is required for a membership application form to provide these options. The privacy principles for Personal Data requires:
 * 1) o Collect only the data needed.
 * 2) o Inform people when data about them are being collected, what is collected, and how it will be used.
 * 3) o Offer a way for people to opt out from mailing lists and from transfer of their data to other parties.
 * 4) o Provide stronger protection for sensitive data.
 * 5) o Keep data only as long as needed.
 * 6) o Maintain accuracy and security of data.
 * 7) o Provide a way for people to access and correct data stored about them. (Baase, 2003)

Overall Analysis
There are issues arising from the selling of private data which is stored in databases. There are different situations in which this could occur, as given in the examples above. We are unable to know for sure what the data is being used for. Privacy and Security are the main issues here, as we are unaware of who has access to our data and what is being stored about us as customers. We are also unable to know what the purpose of selling this data is for, this could also be a security reasons as there are often criminal cases associated with the selling of private data. Business & Employment along with Science and the environment are both areas of impacts with this issue.