Analytic Memo Paper

Words: 645
Pages: 3

In my third Analytic Memo, I discussed the social problem of privacy on the internet, and the extent to which companies can track users and store their personal information. Companies can use this information to sell to other companies, create psychological profiles for effective ad targeting, or to improve goods and services that their customers use; however, many people argue that their privacy is a right that must be protected, and that companies should not be able to collect sensitive information without explicit consent.
The existence of this problem can best be explained through the social constructionist perspective. Analytics and user tracking have been a part of nearly all apps and services for a long time, but only recently have they caused such a large social uproar. This is falls in line with the idea that social problems arise as people define conditions as undesirable. People may not have known that Google tracks their location using their phones, but now that it’s popular knowledge, they are beginning to voice their opposition to the practice.1 The privacy scandal with Facebook and Cambridge
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If the government had access everyone’s positions and conversations at all times, crime would be a non-issue, but we do not like the idea of constantly being tracked. The conflict perspective would not be sufficient in explaining the existence of this social problem because anyone, including the president, can be hurt by data leaks and misused sensitive information. There are no groups that solely benefit from the social problem. Finally, the interactionist perspective is not as good as the constructionist perspective because it ignores the history of internet privacy and the laws that have either hurt or strengthened it. Works