Intelligence Report Draft 2

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Proposal & Draft 1 Intelligence Report

Irving Toruno

Analytic Writing in Political Science

POS 4784 U03

Professor Carmen Arostegui

Florida International University

February 25, 2021

Google Threat

There is a growing need to tame the big techs because of the potential threats they pose to the world and the United States is not an exception. The big techs have a history of violating their user’s privacy over the years of their existence. They have also been scrutinized to being a threat to national security (Romm, 2019). There are several actors behind the scenes of these violations that benefit from the potential chaos brought about by the big techs actions as well as victims. An example is Google’s software glitch on their Google+ product in 2018. Hundreds of thousands of users had their private data exposed by Google and they chose not to disclose the incident. This proposal will look into how data can be leaked, the dangers that result from unregulated actions by Google as a big tech and where they exist, the players benefiting from the big tech’s actions and the victims as well.

There are several ways that private data can be exposed by a big tech company. The most obvious one is weak passwords. Weak passwords allow easy breach of personal data by hackers. Employees in Google can also be a reason for leakage of data. They can lose devices that contain Google’s sensitive information or even steal them. These devices can then fall in the wrong hands and lead to data leakage. Software glitches are also a reason for data leakage because hackers usually search for these vulnerable mistakes in order to breach the company’s security. An example is the software glitch that led to exposure of personal data of Google+ users. The above mentioned scenarios can explain how private data can be leaked from Google without authorization. However, several leakages of information by big techs can be traced to the stakeholders of the companies.

There are several dangerous results that could accompany a leakage or software glitch in Google. Several big techs such as Facebook and Amazon rely on Google’s search engine for domination in their sectors (Wagner, 2019). The government’s operations could be adversely affected by Google’s interference and leakage of private data could also lead to chaos. The need to regulate Google is hampered by the current politicization of Google. Most of the politics surround the description of Google as the internet’s monopoly gatekeeper. Currently, the opposition to these big techs operations is heavily plagued by democrats and republicans. The democrats target Google for its monopoly power while republicans target them with accusations of censoring speech that is conservative. One of the champions in accusations and critics is the former president Donald trump. He constantly accused big techs for censoring him and even gave threats of taking away their protections.

An event that could cause stir and lead to chaos in the United States is the leakage of personal information. Google is able to collect, use and even share the data of users with little constraints. Similar big techs such as Facebook have been reported to give several large tech companies access to the personal data of its users. For example, if Google fails to protect its user’s data from misuse, the nation’s integrity could be affected (Whitman, 2004). A similar scenario happened in the 2016 presidential elections. In the event, a political-data firm, Cambridge Analytica, linked to the presidential campaigns of Donald Trump targeted voters by collecting private information (Schechner, & Secada, 2019). The information was collected from 87 million Facebook users who had not agreed to letting their information to be leaked. Personalized messages were then sent to the users that were believed to affect the results of the elections. This adversely affected the esteemed democracy of the nation.

Several parties would benefit from Google’s interference and there would be several victims. The actors that would benefit from an event mentioned above are Google, according to the reasoning and goal behind such a leakage, the influencer of the leakage and the third party that could benefit from the effects (Bill Curry, B. (2019). The victims include the nation as a whole and the citizens because of violation of the nation’s integrity and the citizen’s right of democracy. Either way, the effects would attract concern from the world as a whole.

In summation, unregulated actions by Google are accompanied by potential threats big enough to cause chaos in the United States. Several big techs such as Facebook and Amazon rely on Google’s search engine for domination in their sectors. Therefore Google’s actions affect their operations in many ways. The government and users of Google products face potential threats that could violate several rights and regulations in place. If some of the potential effects happen, chaos and instability would be the devastating result. For these reasons, there is need to regulate the actions of big techs like Google.

References

Bill Curry, B. (2019).“Elections Canada puts Facebook, Google, other tech giants on notice over political ads,” The Globe and Mail. Retrieved from:https://www.theglobeandmail.com/politics/article-elections-canada-puts-tech-giants-on-notice-over-political-ads/.

Schechner, S., & Secada, M. (2019).“You Give Apps Sensitive Personal Information. Then They Tell Facebook.” Wall Street Journal. Retrieved from:https://www.wsj.com/articles/you-give-apps-sensitive-personal-information-then-they-tell-facebook-11550851636.

Romm, T. (2019). “Facebook and Google to be quizzed on white nationalism and political bias as Congress pushes dueling reasons for regulation,” Washington Post. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/04/08/facebook-google-be-quizzed-white-nationalism-political-bias-congress-pushes-dueling-reasons-regulation/?utm_term=.d7bc3a78c5e6).

Wagner, K. (2019). “Digital advertising in the US is finally bigger than print and television,”. Retrieved from:https://www.vox.com/2019/2/20/18232433/digital-advertising-facebook-google-growth-tv-print-emarketer-2019.

Whitman, J. Q. (2004).“The Two Western Cultures of Privacy: Dignity versus Liberty,” The Yale Law Journal 113. Retrieved from: http://heinonline.org/HOL/Page?handle=hein.journals/ylr113&div=52.