Dark Data Cycle

'The Dark Data Cycle: How the U.S. Government Has Gone Rogue in Trading Personal Data from an Unsuspecting Public' by Melissa Oppenheim argues that

While the historical and legal relationship in the U.S. between privacy expectations and privacy protections has remained a continuously evolving topic, this thesis demonstrates how this relationship has grown increasingly muddled since the midtwentieth century. Contrary to existing law, this thesis argues that a new phenomenon, the “Data Cycle,” has developed in the twenty-first century whereby governmental entities employ private companies as middlemen to buy and sell individuals’ data. Politicians in particular are extremely interested in obtaining information about their constituents. This thesis contends that the Data Cycle has developed due to a shift in informational power between the government and private companies, permitting the government to indirectly acquire large amounts of personal information from individuals online. Although Americans remain concerned about their waning privacy protections, individuals’ increasing addiction to the very technologies that spur the Cycle has pushed privacy to a crossroads in 2012.