Privacy, trust and security in information systems reveiwing an articles (Article Sample)

Privacy, Trust, and Security in Information Systems Reviewing an Article Author name Institutional affiliation Course number and name Instructor name Assignment due date Word Count: 2980 Privacy, Trust, and Security in Information Systems Reviewing an Article It is without a doubt that technology has experienced exponential growth within the last century (Fan & Hossain, 2018). What was once thought impossible has become a reality. For instance, the development and commercialization of cloud services and drastic improvements in Telco carrier technologies such as 5G and AI that were initially unimaginable currently exist and dominate society (Singh et al., 2022). While these have had tremendous impacts, especially regarding communication and productivity, privacy has also been a growing concern. A question arises on whether there is a possibility that these systems could be intentionally used to intrude, interfere, and collect data without the consent and knowledge of users (Etzioni, 2007). This paper sought to answer this question by discussing an article that examined the US ban on the sale of Huawei and ZTE equipment, citing national security concerns (Bartz & Alper, 2022). These national security concerns date back to 2011 when the House Permanent Select Committee on Intelligence (HPSCI) initiated an investigation on Huawei and ZTE to inquire about the security threats posed by using Chinese equipment on US communication infrastructure (Ruppersberger & Rogers, 2012). The inquiry was also to understand the ties these companies had with the Chinese government and how these devices could be used to provide China with intelligence through the network. Limited information and cooperation from Huawei and ZTE to address these concerns consequently led to tough recommendations. This committee recommended the exclusion of Huawei and ZTE equipment in any US government communication systems, including any contractors working in sensitive programs. They further recommended blocking acquisitions, takeovers, and merges involving Huawei and ZTE in the US. In light of these, this paper ventured into the literature to provide a critical analysis of the problem, taking into consideration the theories of privacy and the complex relationship between the US and China. Ban on Huawei and ZTE (Article) According to Bartz and Alper (2022), the Biden Administration had banned approvals of new telecommunication equipment from Huawei and ZTE, stating that they posed a significant risk to US national security. In addition, the US Federal Communications Commission (FCC) succeeded in adopting some of the final rules that would bar any sale or import of new telecommunication or surveillance equipment manufactured by Dahau, Hikvision, and Hytera (Bartz & Alper, 2022). According to the FCC, adopting and implementing such policies were perceived as "critical" in the ongoing efforts to protect US citizens from what the FCC termed threats engineered using the telecommunications system (Bartz & Alper, 2022). Even though Huawei and ZTE Hytera did not comment on the matter, Hikvision went ahead to express its disappointment. They argued that the decision undertaken by the FCC would only make small businesses, local authorities, and individual consumers who use their equipment suffer since limited options would increase the prices of available equipment (Bartz & Alper, 2022). The values and position undertaken by the US regulator depict an extremely low level of trust in Chinese tech companies. Even though the previous recommendations by the HPSCI were not based on any evidence of wrongdoing, it is critical to note that these decisions were informed by expert analysis of Huawei and ZTE telecommunication equipment (Kaska et al., 2019). This analysis suggested such equipment could be used to tunnel information to China. Tunneling information is a security concern because it can involve spying, tracking, and stealing vital information from the target. The idea of this equipment being used to spy on the American people was not far-fetched, considering that most people do not trust technologies (Moloney & Bannister (2008); Beldad et al. (2011). According to Keane (2021), the levels of trust between the US and China, especially in technology-related activities, have tremendously deteriorated over time. For example, in July 2021, Biden Administration investigated Huawei's telecommunication equipment over serious concerns that its equipment in US cell towers could be used to capture or transmit sensitive information related to military bases and missile silos (Alper, 2022). Concerns were that information regarding military drills, or the readiness of military bases could be accessed, posing a serious risk to national security. Even though this article clearly takes the government's position due to fears about national security, the background paints an even more complex picture. The context below questions the aspect of privacy and security of the Chinese telco equipment and how concrete these concerns are when related to concepts and theories of privacy. Theories of Privacy According to the literature, privacy has been a difficult concept to define, and this is because it is continually confused with aspects such as autonomy, secrecy, and liberty (Tavani, 2007). Warren and Brandeis described privacy on the basis of being "free from intrusion" (Tavani, 2007). This view is widely perceived as being let alone, where one's space is free from intrusion of any kind (Panichas, 2014). The issue is determining how this fits into the presenting argument. Perhaps it can be argued that the use of telecommunication/surveillance equipment to spy on US communications goes against the basis of being free from intrusion. While this can be true, it provides a very shallow argument, and in addition, this brings up confusion as it perceives privacy as more of a right, confusing freedom with liberty (Konnoth, 2016). While these two notions of privacy and liberty are close, they can be concisely differentiated (Margulis, 2003). Although there are variations, the seclusion theory, on the other hand, views privacy in terms of inaccessibility (Fussey, 2016). For instance, a person's privacy would be perceived as a situation when no one has access to an individual as he retreats from the world (Meltz, 2014). Even though it provides a clear demarcation of privacy and liberty, this theory associates privacy with solitude (Masur, 2019). This brings up significant challenges in terms of its application in today's society, considering the high levels of globalization and interconnectedness (Tavani, 2008). Additionally, the application of seclusion in technology tends to be severely limited (Margulis, 2011). Non-intrusion and seclusion theories have been attributed to addressing privacy in the dimensions of one's personal space (Allmer, 2011). Even so, privacy concerns have been reported to have evolved from aspects of physical access to those associated with decision-making. In contemporary society, privacy concerns have been attributed to the flow of personal information. Fuchs (2011) also addressed this aspect in the privacy concept, where he noted that in modern society, privacy is a relation between private and public. Fuchs (2011) depicted an interaction of family, private household, and intimacy to the public spheres of communication networks that are further coupled with a society's economic and administrative systems. Mainstream society is now even more complex because critical aspects such as healthcare, commerce, communication, and others have been heavily intertwined with technology. At the earliest conception of information privacy, control theories suggested that privacy is the aspect of having control over information relating to oneself (Birnhack, 2011). Even though this provided a more contextual relation of privacy to information systems, it also failed to clarify which kinds of data and the level of control people expected to have over the information transmitted or stored in these systems. In an attempt to create some aspects of levels, the limitations theory conceptualized the concept of "zones" of privacy that would limit and restrict the access of one personal information by another. Although the control and limitations theories expanded on aspects of privacy concerning information technology, they failed to provide a comprehensive account of privacy (Floridi, 2006). The restricted access/limited control theory provides a more concrete and comprehensive concept of privacy through the lens of information technology (Masevic, 2022). This theory borrowed key elements from all three classical theories of privacy and integrated the concept of "situation" into the definition of privacy. A situation can be an activity, a relationship, or even the storage and access of information in a computer/network. In this theory, Moor noted that information privacy was more concerned with protecting personal data in information systems, where most people wished to establish control over their personal information, and privacy zones could be used to restrict access to one's personal information (Masevic, 2022). The RALC theory can be used to analyze the presenting problem through the lens of privacy. Under normal circumstances, any equipment used in a communication network or surveillance has a specific purpose. For instance, equipment in the telecommunication network transmits user data, such as calls to and from the core network to a mobile station. On the other hand, video surveillance equipment is used to monitor an area where visual data is captured and can be transmitted for monitoring in a remote location. Privacy in this situation means that the data being transmitted by an individual using this equipment should be fully protected from intrusion, interference, or information access by others. When an individual purchases equip...