Chapter 2: Video and Reading Connections

Name: Matt Halla Class time: 11 AM

1. Explain data mining:
Data mining is when companies go through social networking, credit checks, etc. to see how a person acts and using their time before even seeing them or knowing who they are as a person. This is taking our privacy away by having companies look into everything we are doing outside of what they expect for everyone.



2. Relate data mining to privacy issues, specifically citing something you read in Baase, Orwell, etc.

Data mining is like the “big brother” in Orwell’s 1984. The Big Brother isn’t always watching but can at any point in time check what any person is doing. This is just like how when you apply for a job, or already have one, and the company can go look you up on facebook or look at your records to see if you are a threat to their company in any way.


3. Explain Ashley Paynes’s situation:

Ashley Payne was a teacher who was forced to resign from her school from alleged pressure from the principal. She had taken about 700 photos on her vacation and posted them on her facebook page. 10 of these photos had her with an alcoholic beverage in the picture and the school didn’t think that this was proper for a teacher to have out in the world. Also, she had used the word “bitch” in a posting which didn’t go over well for the school either. The use of the word was for a popular game she was going to engage in playing. For this she resigned because of the pressure put on her from the school.




4. Were Ashley Payne’s rights violated? Did the school district have just cause for asking for her resignation? Base your answers off of what you have learned about privacy, show connections to Baase, Orwell, etc and support your opinion.

I think that her rights were violated because she is old enough to have a drink and she wasn’t falling over drunk. Facebook is an open site where you can look up people but what people do in their free time shouldn’t affect their job if it’s nothing that a normal person would engage in. If it’s in a tasteful manner there shouldn’t be a problem with anyone having a drink or using a specific word.




5. Summarize the video “Police surveillance cameras are stopping crime or invading their privacy by Alex Dunbar.”


There was an attempt by the Syracuse police department to stop crime by installing video cameras on the corners of streets. This caused much discussion in the neighborhood about whether or not its was for protection or just so that they can watch everyone.




6. Are police surveillance and traffic cameras are stopping crime or invading your privacy? Base your answers off of what you have learned about privacy, show connections to Baase, Orwell, etc and support your opinion.
I think that the cameras are a good idea to put out and try to catch people committing crimes that would have otherwise gone unnoticed. There is a positive and negative side to everything that is done but I think that by putting them up there is more of a positive aspect than a negative one. This would be a slight invasion of privacy but if they hid them then who knows where they will be.