Digital Privacy Analysis: Case Studies of Real IT Businesses

This report delves into the critical concept of digital privacy, emphasizing the protection of confidential information in the digital realm. It explores the multifaceted nature of digital privacy, encompassing information, individual, and communication privacy, and its significance in advocating for consumer and individual rights while opposing unethical business practices. The report presents detailed case studies of digital privacy breaches at eBay, Facebook, and JP Morgan Chase, providing in-depth analysis of each incident. The eBay case highlights a massive data breach affecting millions of users; the Facebook case reveals identity theft schemes exploiting user data; and the JP Morgan Chase case showcases a large-scale hacking incident impacting millions of customers. The report concludes with actionable recommendations for addressing digital privacy issues, including password protection, antivirus software installation, browser security, and encryption techniques. This comprehensive analysis aims to inform and guide businesses and individuals in navigating the complexities of digital privacy and data security.

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Digital Privacy
Name of the Student
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Executive Summary
The main aim of this report is to understand the entire concept of digital privacy. This digital
privacy refers to subsequent protection of the confidential information of the individual,
which is being utilized as well as created while utilizing the Internet over any computerized
device. Such privacy is the type of collection, which encompasses 3 related categories of
information privacy, individual privacy and communication privacy. Digital privacy is being
utilized in different contexts, which could eventually promote major advocacy for the behalf
of consumer privacy rights and individual rights within digitalized spheres and is even being
utilized in opposition to the respective business practices of several organizations, businesses
and electronic marketers for collecting and using such data and information. Communication
privacy and information privacy are the two most distinctive types that could be referred to as
types of digital privacy and which are needed to be maintained on a priority basis. This report
has analysed three real life case studies of digital privacy that are eBay, Facebook and JP
Morgan Chase. A proper analysis is given in the report with justifications. Moreover,
recommendations are also provided for resolving the issue of digital privacy in these three
identified case studies in an effective manner.

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Table of Contents
1. Introduction............................................................................................................................3
2. Background............................................................................................................................3
3. Summaries of 3 Case Studies of Digital Privacy selected from real IT Businesses..............4
4. Recommendations for addressing issues of Digital Privacy..................................................6
5. Conclusion..............................................................................................................................8
References................................................................................................................................10

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1. Introduction
Digital privacy is the subsequent protection to the confidential data of an individual,
which could be utilized for ensuring high effectiveness is being prevailed in the business or
organization (Athey, Catalini and Tucker 2017). Three important aspects of information
privacy, which are confidentiality, integrity and availability or accessibility are being secured
with the help of these factors. Moreover, the core values of information technology
profession are effectively maintained without much complexity. Data could be easily exposed
to any type of vulnerability and hence it is extremely important to ensure privacy is being
maintained under every circumstance. Social networks are required to be considered to bring
out high efficiency and security for the information (Isin and Ruppert 2015). The following
report outlines a brief analysis of digital privacy with three real life case studies eBay,
Facebook and JP Morgan Chase. Suitable and effective recommendations will be provided
for resolving these issues in the mentioned case studies.
2. Background
It is extremely important and significant to maintain digital privacy for ensuring that
user accounts could be easily and promptly secured with the help of two factor authorization
and authentication for not granting any type of access (Zyskind and Nathan 2015). It might
include utilization of a physical device such as the phone and a card and even any type of
biometric marker such as facial recognition, a voice print and a fingerprint. Digital privacy
ensures that the sensitive information is absolutely safe and secured from all types of
discrepancies and even any type of issue. Privacy should be made a priority after selecting
stronger privacy protections after signing up with fresh online services or any new device.
The devices, involved with this type of privacy, need to be secured by means of proper

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protection from data breaches or data loss (Taylor, Fritsch and Liederbach 2014). There are
several organizations that have faced issues related to digital privacy.
3. Summaries of 3 Case Studies of Digital Privacy selected from real IT Businesses
There had been numerous cases registered in the information technology businesses
that had been registered as victims of digital privacy frauds and scams. Through these case
scenarios, it is being proved that the confidential data gets exposed in social networks and
eventually become accessible to any particular attacker or hacker (Tjiptono and Arli 2016). It
is being observed that most of the organizations have not undertaken basic measures of
security and privacy, hence ensuring high vulnerability in the business. Password managers
are not often installed, which makes it obvious to bring major issues for risks. 3 distinctive
and popular case studies, in which it is being proved that digital privacy plays one of the
major roles in businesses, are provided below:
i) EBay Case Study: The first and the foremost popular case study for successfully
understanding digital privacy is eBay. It is an American multinational electronic commerce
corporation that is eventually responsible for facilitation of business to consumer or consumer
to consumer sales via its official website (The 18 Data Breaches. 2018). EBay is often
referred to as one of the most popular and significant online shopping website, however in the
year of 2014, it has faced a major issue related to digital privacy. More than 145 million users
were affected in this data breach and the IT business lost several customers in the process.
This particular online auction giant had substantially reported a major cyber-attack
during May, which referred to the fact that there had been an exposure of names, dates of
birth, encrypted passwords and addresses of around 145 million users (Milanovic 2015). This
specific information technology business even mentioned that the attackers have got into the
organizational networks with the help of vital credentials like usernames and passwords of 3

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corporate staff and even comprised of a complete access for around two hundred and twenty
nine days. During this time, these hackers had the major ability of making their ways to the
respective user database of the company. It caused major issues since they asked for changing
the passwords to the customers. However, the respective financial information like credit card
numbers and passwords was being stored separately and was not compromised. This
organization was also criticized at the time for lack of communication by informing the users
or even poor deployment of password renewal procedure (Stephen 2016). The data breach
majorly resulted in a sharp decline in the user activity, however it had little impact on bottom
line. Thus, revenue of the organization was lowered by 13% and EBay faced major issues in
their business.
ii) Facebook Case Study: This is the second important and popular case study for
digital privacy. A woman from Arizona was being jailed for 6 years for the cause of
masterminding a scheme of tax rebate, where she and her respective compatriots have utilized
data of Facebook for finding as well as targeting different individuals regarding identity theft
(Social Media, Privacy and Scams. 2015). It eventually works like the scammers are
searching through Facebook social networking site for data on its likely targets and the
unemployed people are being targeted in this occasion. These scammers even contacted the
victims with the help of information that was being obtained from the Facebook accounts.
They even mentioned that they are from one of the government agency for the core purpose
of helping them out. They also wanted to push for extra personalized information from
targets (Richards 2015). A tax claim was utilized for netting all types of profits within the
entire procedure.
There are perpetrators, who have the ability for obtaining confidential information
from numerous people that were being utilized for making false tax claims. Such identity
thefts even are considered as extremely devastating and could even be responsible for data

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loss. With the help of personal information available through Facebook profiles, these
attackers have the ability for presenting all types of authenticated dialogues, which suggest
that the officials have access in personal records and could even be trusted with the data
(Draper 2017). As a result, numerous users lost their confidential data by subsequent
understanding of the importance of digital and data privacy.
iii) JP Morgan Chase: Another important and distinctive case study of digital privacy
that occurred in one of the most popular and noteworthy IT businesses is JP Morgan Chase.
In the year of 2014, more than 7 million smaller businesses and 76 million households were
highly affected due to this data breach (The 18 Data Breaches. 2018). JP Morgan is the most
significant bank in the world and it was the victim of a hacking, which impacted most of its
users. This data even involved names, phone numbers, addresses as well as other vital contact
data like email addresses of the customers. Moreover, the internal information of the users
was also hacked in the process. JP Morgan even mentioned that customer money was not
stolen and there was absolutely no evidence of account information of each and every
affected customer, date of birth, social security numbers, user ID and even passwords were
being compromised in the attack (Ahmed et al. 2017).
The root privileges was also gained over ninety of bank’s servers that can undertake
actions such transferring of funds as well as closing of accounts. The bank of JP Morgan has
spent 250 million dollars over security in 1 year. There were total of 23 counts, after
inclusion of unauthorized access of systems, securities, identity theft and even money
laundering, which netted them with the estimation of 100 million dollars. There were total of
4 hackers, however all were arrested in the year of 2016.

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4. Recommendations for addressing issues of Digital Privacy
It is quite common in IT businesses and IT professionals such issues related to digital
privacy. There had been numerous case studies that state that there are few personal, social,
ethical and legal impacts (Glenn and Monteith 2014). Moreover, the distinctive relationship
within IT professionals as well as the issues of ethics, governance and corporate citizenship is
also being analysed on a priority basis. Since, digital privacy plays one of the major roles in
the business, often there exists major issues related to ethical and legal impacts, which could
be referred to as extremely significant for the business. The most effective and suitable
recommendations to resolve the issues of digital privacy in any particular business are as
follows:
i) Protection of Passwords: This is the first and the most effective recommendation to
ensure digital privacy in any particular business. Passwords are referred to as the most
secured means, which ensure that any particular device or system is absolutely safe and
secured from unauthenticated or unauthorized access (Acquisti, Brandimarte and
Loewenstein 2015). These passwords also ensure subsequent effectiveness in detecting the
various vulnerabilities faced in the business. It is also required to update these passwords in a
periodical manner so that the attackers do not get any idea regarding the unique passwords
and information or devices are being kept safe and secured.
ii) Installation of Antivirus Software: The second important and significant
recommendation to a business for ensuring digital privacy in terms of information or system
is successful installation of antivirus software. This type of software acts as a shield to any
virus attack or malicious activity. Hence, it becomes quite common for the organizations to
secure their data without much complexity. Moreover, the software is quite cheap and easy to
install, thus ensuring almost zero complexity in installation of antivirus software. Regular

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updates are also required for this purpose for ensuring that data is not getting attacked or
hacked and is absolutely safe and secured under any circumstance.
iii) Securing the Browser: The third significant and suitable recommendation to
ensure digital privacy in any particular business is completely securing the browser in an
efficient manner (Ziegeldorf, Morchon and Wehrle 2014). As soon as the browser and
network is secured, it becomes quite easier for the organization to maintain privacy and
security without any type of complexity. Browser security is required for avoiding case
studies like JP Morgan Chase. The data of the employees and staff were stolen and by using
those credentials, the attackers eventually took up the opportunity for stealing the data and
making the entire case vulnerable.
iv) Utilizing Encryption Technique: An implementation of the encryption technique
is yet another vital and significant recommendation for ensuring better digital privacy in the
business. This is considered as one of the safest and secured means of technique, in which
confidential data or information is being encoded, only to be decided with an encryption key.
Without this encryption key, it is not possible to decrypt the data.
v) Careful on Social Media: Since, most of the organizations and IT businesses try to
connect with their customers through social media, it is highly recommended for these
businesses to be absolutely careful on social media (Gelman et al. 2018). The data that is
being shared online can be stolen by the hackers and then used as a motive to bring
vulnerabilities.
5. Conclusion
Therefore, from the above discussion, it can be concluded that digital privacy is
needed to be maintained on a priority basis for properly collecting and monetizing the
personalized data that is being generated on a regular basis for navigating the web, utilizing

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the phone as well as in entertainment. Few distinctive strategies are to be executed for
successfully protecting the digital privacy. The first strategy is up gradation of devices such
as security cameras and routers and keeping software up to date. Utilization of two factor
authentication by not only relying on password is the second effective strategy for security.
The fundamental ethical issues within business mainly involve promotion of conduct on the
basis of integrity as well as trust of the employees. However, most of the complex issues in
the organization involve accommodating diversity, governance and compliance consistent
and even empathetic decision making process. The organizational core values are needed to
be aligned on a priority basis and hence ensuring high effectiveness and efficiency in the
business. The above provided report as clearly outlined a detailed analysis of digital privacy
after consideration of three case studies of eBay, Facebook and JP Morgan Chase with major
recommendations.

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References
Acquisti, A., Brandimarte, L. and Loewenstein, G., 2015. Privacy and human behavior in the
age of information. Science, 347(6221), pp.509-514.
Ahmed, S.I., Haque, M.R., Chen, J. and Dell, N., 2017. Digital privacy challenges with
shared mobile phone use in bangladesh. Proceedings of the ACM on Human-Computer
Interaction, 1(CSCW), p.17.
Athey, S., Catalini, C. and Tucker, C., 2017. The digital privacy paradox: Small money,
small costs, small talk (No. w23488). National Bureau of Economic Research.
Draper, N.A., 2017. From privacy pragmatist to privacy resigned: challenging narratives of
rational choice in digital privacy debates. Policy & Internet, 9(2), pp.232-251.
Gelman, S.A., Martinez, M., Davidson, N.S. and Noles, N.S., 2018. Developing digital
privacy: Children's moral judgments concerning mobile GPS devices. Child
development, 89(1), pp.17-26.
Glenn, T. and Monteith, S., 2014. Privacy in the digital world: medical and health data
outside of HIPAA protections. Current psychiatry reports, 16(11), p.494.
Isin, E. and Ruppert, E., 2015. Being digital citizens. Rowman & Littlefield International.
Milanovic, M., 2015. Human rights treaties and foreign surveillance: Privacy in the digital
age. Harv. Int'l LJ, 56, p.81.
Richards, N., 2015. Intellectual privacy: Rethinking civil liberties in the digital age. Oxford
University Press, USA.

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Social Media, Privacy and Scams. 2015. [online]. Accessed from
https://www.socialmediatoday.com/news/social-media-privacy-and-scams-3-recent-cases-
that-highlight-the-need-to/454720/ [Accessed on 08 September 2019].
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behavior. Current Opinion in Psychology, 10, pp.17-21.
Taylor, R.W., Fritsch, E.J. and Liederbach, J., 2014. Digital crime and digital terrorism.
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The 18 Data Breaches. 2018. [online]. Accessed from
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century.html [Accessed on 08 September 2019].
Tjiptono, F. and Arli, D., 2016. Gender and digital privacy: examining determinants of
attitude toward digital piracy among youths in an emerging market. International journal of
consumer studies, 40(2), pp.168-178.
Ziegeldorf, J.H., Morchon, O.G. and Wehrle, K., 2014. Privacy in the Internet of Things:
threats and challenges. Security and Communication Networks, 7(12), pp.2728-2742.
Zyskind, G. and Nathan, O., 2015, May. Decentralizing privacy: Using blockchain to protect
personal data. In 2015 IEEE Security and Privacy Workshops (pp. 180-184). IEEE.