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Business Privacy Rights

Ty Spencer
Algonquin College Centre for Continuing Education

Information Technology and the Business Student

BUS2302

Contents
Business Privacy Rights......................................................................................................3
Social Media & Electronic Devices.....................................................................................5
Privacy Features on Facebook.........................................................................................5
Privacy features of Electronic Devices............................................................................6
Is Privacy Dead?..................................................................................................................7
How Does The Internet Change The Way We Think?.........................................................8
Internets Effects on our Brains...........................................................................................9
References..........................................................................................................................11

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Business Privacy Rights
In business Privacy is a critical personal issue that occurs in both society and
government. I agree that every individual is entitled to their privacy, and, therefore, we should
respect that. Privacy is an ability that individuals posses, what and how things are considered to
be secured as private depend solely on the cultural and societal norms. Personal privacy varies by
a person due to todays technology and software which makes someones private life more
public. For instance, Facebook is a social media site where individuals can share what is
happening in their life. Facebooks intent is there for people to connect. However, individuals
may find themselves in situations where Facebook exposes their privacy to others whom they
would not accept. In Canada, there are two forms of protection of privacy. The Privacy Act
covers all personal information handling. Moreover, the second form of protection is the
Personal Information Protection and Electronic Documents Act (PIPEDA) which includes the
federal, private sectors laws on privacy (Canada, n.d.). Another crucial piece of information
regarding privacy is that every province and territory in Canada has their legislation of Public
Privacy laws. Specifically in Ontario, this is referred to as the Personal Health Information
Protection Act. This law explicitly establishes rules on how privacy is collected and used for the
sole purposes of health care.

What are my Privacy Rights?

As a citizen of Canada personal privacy can be branched into six main categories

The law of Personal Online Privacy

Video Surveillance Privacy
Privacy and Employment
Privacy and the Federal Government
Privacy of Personal Health Information
Privacy, Law enforcement and anti-terrorism

Firstly as a Canadian citizen, I can say that I feel protected currently under the laws of
privacy. With online privacy, the main idea that needs to be stated is that if the user does not
make their personal life exposed they will not become a victim of personal privacy theft.
Awareness needs to be taken into consideration when sharing any information on the internet and
thought needs to be put into what you share.
Secondly, regarding video surveillance in the private sector; the property owner must
make a note and post that the use of video surveillance equipment is being used therefore you as
an individual can object to entering and establishment where you are being recorded. Once the
individual notices the posting and enters the premise, he/she is accepting that they are being
monitored, and information may be used.
Third, the privacy for employment states that all employees are entitled to some form of
privacy at their workplace. However, the fine print in the government of Canadas privacy and
employment indicates that the employees information may be collected and released if
circumstances should arise and a reasonable person feels the need to release/obtain.

Lastly, both forms of protection tie in and, therefore, the privacy laws are similar. The
privacy regarding law enforcement and anti-terrorism gives law enforcement the right to Search
your residence with the proper warrant that gives the law enforcement the right to enter/seize any
property they feel stands as evidence. This also relates to the aspect of Privacy and the federal
government. If the individual were to enter into a government location, they are required to be
searched for anything that puts government individuals in harms way.

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Social Media & Electronic Devices
Privacy settings are becoming one of the most important features of social media and
electronic devices. In this Section, the privacy features will be described and elaborated on.
Privacy Features on Facebook
On the website, Facebook privacy is one of the most fundamental elements of possessing an
account. The Basic Privacy settings and tools are broken down but not limited to 3 main
categories.
1. Who will see the information posted
2. How does the changing of age affect my privacy
3. How is my personal data used
Firstly, when it comes to the sharing of information on Facebook; the user has full rights on
whom to share their information with. Although many users may not know this everything that
the user shares in a public environment can be controlled as to what audience can view your
content. This is done by directing yourself to the privacy settings tab and selecting the audience
heading.
Secondly, when a user signs up for Facebook to create their account as a minor, they have limited
ability of some of Facebooks functions. For example, when a minor creates an account they are
designed as a private account where not just anyone can message the user. This all changes when
the minor becomes the age of majority. Facebook will contact the user stating that their privacy
features have changed, and they require the users immediate attention. Now, as an adult the user
may be reached by virtually anyone and if they want this feature off they may change it in the
settings.

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Lastly, the personal data on Facebook can be collected by survey agencies that directly analyze
your habits and influence your experience with ads that may interest you. The one substantial
piece of information that should be known to the users is that everything that occurs on Facebook
is stored by Facebook as long as the account is active and is kept in Facebooks data centers for
90 days after deletion. (Facebook Privacy , 2016)
Privacy features of Electronic Devices
In this section, I will be outlining the privacy features on an Apple iPhone 6s device. On
the Apple devices, privacy differs from the operating system. Currently, iOS 9 is the operating
system that is found on my iPhone 6s. With the new phone, there have become new features that
require the users permission to record. For instance, Motion & Fitness has been added to the
new device and requires the users permission to record body motion, step count, stairs climbed
and more. This feature can be enabled or disabled from the privacy settings.
A problem that was surfaced when iOS 9 was released is that it was tracking the users
locations without their approval and, therefore, sent users shutting this feature off. The feature is
known as frequent places. It can be disabled under location services and system services. In
personal experience, I do not have this setting disabled because it serves as an excellent
employment tool to know the last time I was at the residence for record information.
To conclude this section, I believe that Apple does not track your information for the
wrong reasons but to better the experience for other users. For example, Apples location services
can monitor and send users data when the owner is stopped in traffic. They will share this
information with other users which are a great way that technology is used.

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Is Privacy Dead?
When asking this question we can break this down into two sections. The first section is
privacy in technology and also privacy in society. Many people have stated in the news they feel
that privacy is, in fact, dead due to the fact on how easy it is to find out information on
individuals. To look at an example of how privacy in the digital age is dying is when we look at
e-commerce. With the new ways of buying goods and services, it makes our information
available to many other people that open up our habits and shows what we are interested in.
Although our names may not be exposed, it still gives marketers the information they need to
target our device addresses.
There are many examples of how our privacy is being released to marketers and with the
digital age making ways that we once knew before become extinct only makes you wonder what
will be of privacy in years to come. Before, the population did not share what they were feeling
or what they had for breakfast. Now this information is shared with the world and only paints a
target on us.
When looking into the future, will we care about privacy? So much of what we know is
shared with others by social media sites and the times are changing very rapidly. One thing I am
starting to notice is that children are being exposed to technology at a very young age and are
becoming masters at the software but are forgetting about the purpose of having a private life. I
as a user of social media find that if someone wanted to know something about an individual the
primary source he or she find information is from Facebook or Google. The main question that
is asked for the use of these sites is
Why are they free?

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Moreover, this is to do with the fact that our information that we make public is
being collected by marketers who are paying the media sites to get their hands on this
information.
To conclude why I think that privacy is slowly dying if not already dead is that
with all of our information already out there it is owned by the people who collect the
information once we submit it and, therefore, we have no rights to the information once it
is taken.

How Does The Internet Change The Way We Think?

Before the internet humans, main methods of communication were by letters, face to
face, or by telephone. Since the internet has become about it has given the world a way to
interact on a level like no other with people all over and not just in our community. The internet
has changed every aspect of my life, and I can say this mostly for the use of the internet to find
information on my education. (Edge.Org, 2010) Before the internet information was obtained
and written in encyclopedias and books that concerned the particular topic. People had actually
to go on a hunt for books to research information. Now today students in particular only have to
type a few words and are presented with an endless amount of information that is left for the
student to decide whether the information is credible or not.
The internet has changed how people research information. For example, the year is now
1995 and a student is asked to research the migration of Canadian geese. The students first
though are that he/she needs to head to the library and find every article relating to Canadian
Geese. The student is now to read and locate where the information of Canadian Geese migration

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is. During this time the student is focused mainly on the one piece of information. The student
finds what he/she were looking for and now writes the information down with a pencil into a
report to hand into the professor.
Now we go into the future 20 years to 2015 and are asked the same question by your
teacher. The first thing you do as a student in the digital age is type into google. Migration of
Canadian Geese and click search. Within the time, it takes to click search the student is
presented with 97,200 results within 0.59 seconds.
The example of the two periods of time shows how in a difficult sense researching was
before the internet. The difference in thinking was the process of researching for the student in
1995. The student in 1995 essentially has hands on experience with researching physical
information where the student in 2015 may lack this experience. The 1995 student required
having a detailed level of thinking needed for reading and researching where the 2015 student
needed little to no thought on how to physically find the information necessary.
To conclude this just shows how easy yet evolved our lives have become in 20 years with
the use of the internet. What is going to happen in 20 years time? It actually makes you wonder
what else humans are capable of.
Internets Effects on our Brains
When researching the internets effect on individuals brains I am always reminded of
new terms that individuals born in the digital age are using that werent used 20 years ago. For
instance, if the year was 1995 and someone were to ask you to google the effects of the internet
you wouldnt have a slight clue of what the person is asking you. This goes to show that we as
humans living in the digital age rely on the internet typically google to store information for us
that should be found in our brain if we werent in the digital age. To give you some numbers as

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to google searches in 2014 the average number of google searches a day were 5,740,000,000
(Google Statistics, 2014)
The internet takes away from the part of our brain that gives us the ability to think
critically and in a great sense changes the way that we communicate to individuals in the world
around us.
Another negative impact that social media has impacted onto our brains is the sense that
we are missing out on something if we do not hop onto social media to see what others are doing.
In a sense, users are starting to crave to know what others are doing, and it is only negatively
affecting the way we live our lives.
A way in which the internet effect my ability is that I need to know when to disconnect.
Sometimes I find myself up to the late hours of the night without sleep watching another episode
of a series on Netflix only to find that I have to work in 3 hours.
To conclude the internets effect to others is that it effects everyone differently, and the
individual needs to realize that the internet is changing their identity and making their private
lives become more public.

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References
Canada, G. o. (n.d.). Privacy Legislation. Retrieved from Government Canada Privacy:
https://www.priv.gc.ca/resource/fs-fi/02_05_d_15_e.asp
Edge.Org. (2010). Edge.Org. Retrieved from 2010: HOW IS THE INTERNET CHANGING
THE WAY YOU THINK?: https://edge.org/responses/how-is-the-internet-changing-theway-you-think
Facebook Privacy. (2016, 03 04). Retrieved from Arstechnica:
http://arstechnica.com/gadgets/2013/01/ask-ars-does-facebook-auto-delete-content-aftera-certain-period-of-time/
Google Statistics. (2014). Statistics Brain. Retrieved from Google Search Statistics:
http://www.statisticbrain.com/google-searches/