Sustainability of Data Rights

has since changed, my curiosity about the world of software has not wavered. I have found that the core of my passion revolves around the problem-solving aspect of programming. I love the feeling of working on a problem for days, even weeks, then finally solving it; it's like scratching an itch in my brain. That feeling of accomplishment, the emphasis on logic-based reasoning, and the versatility of the degree are the main reasons Computer Science became my major of choice.

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          Towards the second half of my high school career was when programming changed from a hobby or personal project to something I could see myself doing in college and eventually for the rest of my life. With the beginning of my college search and this shift in interest, I began to research the field to attempt to find a more specific area to focus my aims on. From this research, I found a sub-set of Computer Science that piqued my interest, Data Science. Data Science a field rooted in the retrieval, study, and analysis of large data sets using code and algorithms to notice large scale trends indistinguishable to humans on their own. The applications of this field range from helping advertisers choose an audience to search through and comparing human genomes to trying to find mutations and inconsistencies that cause cancer. The latter of those two applications was what initially got me interested in the subject area.

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          During my junior year, my coding teacher and I were discussing the path I wanted to take in my future, so I mentioned Data Science. He mentioned he had had contact with a professor at a local university who had his Master’s degree in Data Science and now teaches the subject for said university. My teacher asked if I would like to have a meeting with him to discuss the field. Naturally, I agreed, and this led to one of the most influential and informational conversations of my entire life. In the two hours I spoke with him, I went from slightly looking into Data Science as an option to possibly wanting to have a career in the field. He described how he had written code that was able to take in digital models of DNA strands and compare the millions of genomes to search for inconsistencies with accuracy and speed impossible for humans. At the time, he was using this technology to search for a cause, and possible cure, for multiple different cancers. Since then, my career interest has shifted to other sub-sets of Computer Science, but my general interest in the field has not faded. 

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          Over this past summer, I watched a documentary called The Great Hack. Before, I was passively aware of the human monitoring going on at the hands of these large tech companies, but the scope and purpose of this monitoring were entirely lost on me. I was amazed by just how much information these companies, more specifically Cambridge Analytica, were able to get using these Data Scientific processes. Furthermore, they were able to group, trend, and sort the data of these people like points on a graph to manipulate them more effectively to benefit their clients. Unethical? Probably. Legal? A begrudging yes. Realizing everything from our search engines to our social media can be used to create an accurate portrayal of us as people as well as semi-accurately predict our actions and wants before we do or crave them was, frankly, terrifying. Realizing that, with this information, companies can actually create a form of early-stage mind control to propagate false messages and convince the public of messages that promote their agenda without the people being aware, something needs to be done. In today’s digital world where everything we live, breathe and do is online, our Data Rights and our Digital Privacy are our most precious commodities, and if we don’t fight to protect them now we may lose them forever. That is why I think it is so important to protect Data Rights and that is why I have chosen it as the topic for my research paper.