Nicholas Parker

Dr. Abdel Kmir

CSIT 101 Technology and Information Systems
13 September 2015
Assignment 1: Information Literacy

The current event article that was chosen from techcrunch.com was written by Sara Perez
and posted on September 4, 2015. The article titled, "Spotify Rolls Out A Revamped, Plain
Language Privacy Policy Following Controversial Update" is about how Spotify overstepped
the boundaries of what the company was doing with the private information of their users. Most
people do not read the entire User Agreements when they install software onto their computer.
As a result, when a person clicks on the I Agree icon or Accepts icon, they are granting these
companies full access to their private information that can be sold to other companies without the
knowledge of the user.

3. The keyword that was used to search the internet for articles on the same topic was privacy. I
searched zdnet.com and CNN technology section. The search engine that provided more
articles online was the CNN technology section.

4.

5.

Originally written by one author on August 26, 2015 Ashley Madison hack: Costly
end of the affair by Paul Callan and updated on August 27, 2015 by Jeff Yang Ashley
Madison hack: Privacy becomes extinct.
This relates to the topic of privacy and how companies have violated the users privacy
for potential gain.
Jeff Lang is columnist for the Wall Street Journal Online and contributes frequently to
radio shows. The opinions expressed in this commentary are solely those of the author.
Paul Callan is a CNN legal analyst, a former homicide prosecutor and media law
professor. The opinions expressed in this commentary are his.
They are qualified to write about this topic due to their educational and employment
background.
The information is trustworthy, is supported by the evidence and is accurate because the
company has confirmed publicly that they were hacked and private information about
their users was obtained by the hacker.
The purpose of these articles was to inform users although you may think your personal
accounts that you establish on website are protected, you may want to think again about
which sites you choose to frequent because somewhere, out there, in the World Wide
Web, a hacker is just waiting to swoop in and expose the vulnerabilities of these sites.
The key word that was used to find the articles is privacy.
The database that I used was Gale and ProQuest SIRS.
Even though Gale Database and SIRS were listed on the website of an educational
institution, does not insure that provide accurate and trustworthy sites. The responsibility
falls on the reader to investigate the author and the publication information. For example,
has the information been peer-reviewed.

6. Paragraph is listed on next page comparing Internet and Journal articles.

7. Word Cited page is in MLA format.

2

The internet article on Ashley Madison Hack: Privacy Becomes Extinct CNN.com.
was easy to access just by entering the words, privacy and technology. The internet articles were
plentiful with current dates and the authors credentials were listed by the Editor of the CNN
website. CNN news has a good reputation for reporting accurate and trustworthy news. The
information in this article was released on nightly news and on the CNN news channel during the
timeframe the story came to light. The journal article on Crackdown on Surveillance Justice
Department Changes Its Policies on Cellphone Tracking and Privacy Concerns was obtained
from the database. SIRS. This database was access through CCBC Library and it took several
more steps to locate an article that pertained to the same subject that was written within thirty
days. This article was from the Wall Street Journal; which is a reputable newspaper.

Work Cited

Barrett, Devlin. Wall Street Journal 2015 Sep 04: A.3 DB - SIRS Issues Researcher. Web.
7 Sept. 2015.
Callan, Paul. "Ashley Madison Hack: The Lawyers Are Going to Descend - CNN.com." CNN.
25 Aug. 2015. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.
Perez, Sarah. "Spotify Rolls out A Revamped, Plain Language Privacy Policy Following
Controversial Update." TechCrunch. 4 Sept. 2015. Web. 5 Sept. 2015.
Sullum, Jacob. "When your records are not yours: two cases highlight the precariousness of
privacy Reason Aug.-Sept. 2015: 12. Opposing Viewpoints in Context. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.
Yang, Jeff. Ashley Madison Hack: Privacy Becomes Extinct CNN.com. CNN.
27 Aug. 2015. Web. 6 Sept. 2015.