Big Data: the Beauty or the Beast

Camelia CRIAN1,
Alexandra ZBUCHEA2
Steliana MORARU3

Abstract. Big Data is a phenomenon that has been made possible by the IT and the
social media revolutions - where content is created or generated by users and their
interaction, at the same time with the exponential increase of the data storage capacity,
according to the Moores law. It has been a long-time dream of social scientists to
investigate an issue of importance for large groups of people where n - the number of the
investigated subjects - is not determined by some statistical complex formula, but rather
by mentioning n=all. This would allow for better results, with wider applicability in
the attempts to understand the society, its trends, ideas and how they propagate, as well
as the capacity of taking more efficient decisions that concern purchase, education,
health and politics. But what are the costs? Our paper aims at looking at means and
ways through which Big Data is being generated, to provide examples of Big Data
ownership and consequences derived from this, and to illustrate the use of Big Data for
improving the life of the societys members. We define the Big Data, how it is generated,
processed and the degrees of responsibility in maneuvering such precious resource. At
the same time, our focus is on the backside of accumulating large amounts of personal
information. We evaluate how and if major companies are handling Big Data properly
- from disclosing information about gathering such data, processing it and using it to
their own profit, with the informed consent of the subjects. In our research we discuss
potential implications from the perspective of redefining what personal and private still
means when individual data becomes a commodity.

Keywords: Big Data, data analysis, privacy, business ethics.

1. Lecturer, Ph.D., College of Communication and Public Relations, National University

for Political Studies and Public Administration, [email protected].
2. Associate Professor, Ph.D., College of Management, National University for Political
Studies and Public Administration, [email protected].
3. Ph.D. Candidate, College of Communication and Public Relations, National
University for Political Studies and Public Administration, [email protected].
830 Strategica 2014

Big Data is everywhere. Big Data is upon us. We live in the age of big
data. The era of Big Data has begun (Boyd & Crawford, 2014; Tene &
Polonetsky, 2013). Or should we say: Welcome to Big Data. Welcome to
the end of computing as we have known it for 70 years (Needham, 2013).
All the above points of view are conveying one thing - we are witnessing a
revolution in the way information is being gathered, stored and processed.
From each Internet login, from each app usage, from each shopping item
bought online, from the sensors of our engines millions and millions of
pieces of information are being generated every minute. Such data does
not only need huge capacity to be stored, but what researchers have
recently found is that processing it, brings about patterns and correlations
that are affecting large amounts of people or can increase the innovation
potential of companies. For instance, in 2009 Google was able to track
the expansion of pig flu epidemic by following searches for flu related
topics. It did this two weeks before the US Center for Disease Control
(Loukides, 2011). In another example, a computer scientist, Oren Etzioni,
aggregating open data offered by airline companies, has set up a web search
engine allowing future passengers to buy plane tickets at the best timing,
for the best price (Mayer-Schonberger & Cukier, 2013). Even if it is about
big or small results, big data analyses have allowed people make better,
more informed decisions and as a result, their lives changed for better.

How big is Big Data?

,Sangameswar (2013) says that Big Data refers to data of massive scale and
complexity. If one unit of data is measured by a byte, the data stored in
the world reached as of 2012, about 2.5 exabytes of data and that number
is doubling every 40 months or so (McAffee & Brynjolfsson, 2012). This
means 1018 bytes, while the largest measurement unit for data storage goes
up to yottabytes, which is 1024 bytes. That is 10 followed by 24 zeros.
Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier (2013) give a significant example related
to amassing data in astronomy. Its about the Sloan Digital Sky Survey
and its telescope in New Mexico, which has been collecting more data in
a few weeks than it has been collected in the entire history of astronomy
- 140 terabytes of information by 2010. But not all data gathered can be
considered Big Data.
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Boyd and Crawford (2014, p. 663) define Big Data as: a cultural,
technological and scholarly phenomenon that rests on the interplay of:
technology, analysis and mythology. In their view Big Data rests on
computer power, its analysis determine patterns which generate knowledge
and insights that one could not have foreseen previously with an aura of
truth, objectivity and accuracy. Sangameswar (2013) defines more clearly
the type of information that are part of Big Data: traditional enterprise data
(customer information, web store transactions, etc.), machine generated
and sensor data, weblogs, equipment logs and social data, including
customer feedback streams, micro-blogging. McAffee and Brynjolfsson
(2012, p. 63) say that Big Data has three types of characteristics: volume
(which has been detailed above), variety (messages, updates, and images
posted to social networks; readings from sensors; GPS signals from
cell phones, etc.) and velocity (information is generated in real-time or
nearly real-time which allows a company to be much more faster than its
competitors).

As a result of these definitions, we understand that not any data gathered

and analyzed by companies could be labeled as Big Data, but this title
applies to all those cases where mass information is generated from a
variety of sources at high rate. An important feature of Big Data is its
messiness. It means, according to Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier (2013,
p. 39) that more trumps better, and thus a research where potentially
the number of respondents equals the total of the researched population
(n=all) should decrease for this reason its obsession for exactitude. The
more information we add, the higher the potential for errors within data,
as well as consistency for data formatting and combining various types of
data. However, as the two authors put it, quoting Hopkins and Evelson
(2011) sometimes 2+2 equal 3.9 and that is good enough. This does not
mean that the data is incorrect, just that when we whiteness for instance
1000 tweets per second it makes more sense to show tolerance for error
rather than aim for clockwork precision. This reality is then transferred to
the way data is analyzed.

Davenport and Patil (2012) claim that a new job - data scientist - is the
sexiest job of the 21st century. They start their argument from presenting
the case of a PhD graduate from Stanford which brought LinkedIn to the
success it is today, just because his data analysis showed that people could
832 Strategica 2014

develop their networks easier if they follow machine based algorithms in

finding people they could be matched with, based on the information they
have shared in their profile. A similar example of using data analysis is shared
by Mayer-Schonberger and Cukier (2013) when they describe the success
Amazon.com had, when replacing the comments and recommendation of
professional reviewers to items customers may be interested it, based on
books purchased from the same domain by other people who checked out
certain item. It was all based on how the traces left by different users have
been processed and analyzed to understand a pattern. The important issue
here is that instead of trying to understand the Why, what is the Cause
which determined purchases based on people preferences rather than
expert recommendations, the companies were satisfied with identifying
the pattern, and were not looking for the explanation of the pattern. In
sociological analysis this equals with finding a correlation between two
phenomena / variables. It means that the change in one goes along with
the change in the other, but it is not necessarily determining it. Such types
of results based on data processing are allowing companies to extract added
value and innovate. It appears not only that Big Data is omnipresent, but
also using and processing it is a highly economically viable option.

The detractors of Big Data conquers all position express, in our view,
3 main areas of concern: quality of data analysis, compensation for
personal data usage, protection of privacy and intimacy. Big Data does
not necessary mean better data or scientifically sound data, which could
lead to scientifically sound research and thus quality of knowledge (Boyd
& Crawford, 2014). Companies storing peoples data should made
them aware that such data may be used for economic purposes and, as a
result, pay them in return for using their data (Buck, Horbel, Kessler &
Germelmann, 2014). To the same extent, people should be made aware or
educated to become more careful that the free usage of some apps in return
to their personal data needed to install them may be a bad bargain for
them. In terms of privacy and intimacy, we will refer to this by large in the
next chapter, however, it is worth mentioning here that realizing at some
point that your personal data is available to potentially anyone paying a
good price to sell you something, or that a Big Brother can follow your
every move tend to cast a shadow of fear and adversity towards companies
for which we, sometimes non intentionally, allow access to our private
online life.
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The backside of Big Data from the individual and society perspective
- breaching the right to intimacy
As mentioned above, the benefits of using Big Data are largely recognized,
both at society level / macro-level policies (Bollier, 2010; Chen, Chiang
& Storey, 2012; Gehrke, 2012; Lohr, 2012; Whitepaper, 2012), as well
as at business-level strategies (Bollier, 2010; Lohr, 2012; McAffee &
Brynjolfsson, 2012; Russom, 2011). Using Big Data has also downsides.
For instance, it could be deceptive and could lead to false findings, either
deliberately or unconsciously (Lohr, 2012; Yetiskin, 2014). Interpretation
of Big Data is sensitive in several ways to biases (Bollier, 2010). In this
context not just honesty in dealing with and analyzing Big Data is
important, but also qualified work force is necessary. There is an increased
demand for specialized analysts (Lohr, 2012; McAffee & Brynjolfsson,
2012), as well as for a new managerial approach (McAffee & Brynjolfsson,
2012; Yetiskin, 2014).

In business context, one of the most debated Big Data related issues is
the privacy of consumers. Laurila et al. (2012) consider that protecting
privacy of individuals behind the data is obviously the key reason for access
and usage limitations of Big Data. Respecting the right to privacy of the
consumers and stakeholders is not just a matter of ethics but also a matter
of good business. Companies have to consider not just the legislation, but
also the requirements of the wider public to benefit of privacy and respect
in their relationships with businesses in order to be trusted and preferred
to their competition.

Agreeing that the main three characteristics of big data are volume, velocity
and diversity (McAfee & Brynjolfsson, 2012; Whitepaper, 2012; Russom,
2011), we would like to add to these, a relevant forth one: personal
character. Big Data is intimately related with individuals, comprising in
many instances sensitive personal and financial information. Therefore,
privacy issues are extremely important to consider when acquiring, storing,
processing, analyzing and using Big Data. This is proved by the interest of
governments to regulate this field, as well as numerous public scandals and
consumer taking of stand in this respect.
834 Strategica 2014

Researchers investigating the regulation of big data in various countries

tend to agree that the European Union has the amplest legislative system
but none is comprehensive (Asay, 2013; Guo, 2012; MacDermott &
Smith, 2013). The main difference between the European and American
approaches is that the first imposes tight governmental regulations, while
the other lets the industry self-regulate and gives customers more liberty to
decide. Data Protection in the EU involves high standards; only legitimate
data collection is allowed under tight security. It sets criteria to be
considered. There is an agreement between the EU and the US to comply
with the European standards, but just a few American companies have
accepted the terms (Guo, 2012). In the US, consumers have the choice to
control their information and protect their privacy. The weak aspect is that
people do not generally read privacy notices or they do not understand
them (Asay, 2013). This, corroborated with some debatable aspects of the
legislation in the US, could generate privacy breaches or other problems in
handling Big Data (Asay, 2013).

Big Data management has to consider several complex privacy-related

aspects. The main points of reference would be: the scale and the aims of
the collector; the media used to gather information.
Big Data could be collected by businesses of all sorts, by regional / national
collectors and public organizations (open data). Especially in the last
case data sets are shared for the benefit of a wider public, while personal
information is protected. Still privacy breach could occur (Gehrke, 2012).

Research of Big Data, even in academic context, involves sensitive issues,

especially privacy-related ones (Laurila et al., 2014). Three main aspects
are to be considered: data security, data anonymization and the respect
of privacy by the researchers. If the data is specifically collected for the
research, consent from the participants / subjects of the investigation also
has to be secured. In order to share the results of the research, privacy
during the entire research flow is a must.

Special privacy issues could emerge also when using Big Data for the
benefit of larger communities. Many discussions are related, for instance,
with the use of Big Data in health care in the US (Bollier, 2010; Groves et
al., 2013). Privacy is a key-factor in the process of sharing vital data, as well
Camelia CRIAN, Alexandra ZBUCHEA,
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as to investigate the data corpus available. Other relevant aspects opposing

the use of integrated Big Data in healthcare are related with the interests of
various actors, and with various ethical aspects (Boillier, 2010).

Big Data is collected using various channels: offline/administrative,

online and mobile. The Internet and mobile phones are increasingly more
challenging due to their dynamics. The Internet is the one that changed the
way information is dealt with and generated the use and the research on
big data. More recently, the development of smartphones offers new type
of information and databases (mobile big data), as well as new challenges.
This refers to the need to manage large-scale information generated by the
use of smartphones, including online and application use. This type of data
allows understanding real-life phenomena, including individual traits,
as well as human mobility, communication, and interaction patterns
(Laurila et al., 2012)

The first sensitive issue is to decide what information to collect. It is not just
a matter of management of having significant information, but also of
ethics of justifying the storage of that specific information. An additional
ethical and legal aspect is to obtain the approval of each individual to store,
manipulate and use that information. In many cases the information is not
used only by the organization that obtained it, but also by its associates.
The transmission of data to third-bodies is also highly sensitive (Asay,
2013). Not just consumers do not have control over this information, but
companies themselves loose the control.

One of the privacy breaches is the identity theft. It can occur in many forms,
as it widely means the unauthorized use of information (MacDermott &
Smith, 2013). 10% of the US online consumers were victim of an identity
theft (MacDermott & Smith, 2013). Some artists and hacktivists draw
the attention on the perils associated with Big Data wrongful handling,
in order to make people aware of the sensitivity of the information they
share online (Yetiskin, 2014) and how social reality can be manipulated. A
severe privacy issue is the phishing phenomenon, since it involves in many
cases disclosure and subsequent use of financial information.
836 Strategica 2014

A frequent aspect involving ethical aspects related with privacy violation is

the use of cookies4. Many of the popular websites use cookies to track their
visitors, some of them permanently not only while on their website. At
least to a certain degree people know and accept this if they are interested
in those websites. Nevertheless most of them are uneasy with the idea of
being tracked by advertising (Bollier, 2010).

Even if privacy seems to be a hot topic in the context of Big Data and
the Internet / mobile environment, the tendency overall, both considering
businesses and governments is the growing control of consumers, as well
as of citizens (Yetiskin, 2014). Organizations and individuals are caught
between ethics and business/politics. Some delicate situations may arise.
Sometimes companies take the ethical stand, but for whose benefit? For
instance, Facebook protected its users from intrusion and loss of privacy
against their employers, but, in fact, the company protected itself from
future damage and lack of trust (MacDemott, 2013).

The trust of consumers in companies is an issue of prime importance. Big

Data could be affected by the lack of trust. For instance consumers and
individuals could provide partial or false information, so data will be from
the beginning corrupted (Gehrke, 2012). Trust in online transaction would
also influence the online shopping behavior. Other issues to be considered
in this context are online (perceived) security system, information scanning,
recommendation / review system, credibility, and virtual experience (Fang
& Li, 2014). The shopping and searching behavior influences the data
collected, as well as Big Data influences consumer behavior.

4. A cookie, also known as an HTTP cookie, web cookie, or browser cookie, is a small
piece of data sent from a website and stored in a users web browser while the user is
browsing that website. Every time the user loads the website, the browser sends the
cookie back to the server to notify the website of the users previous activity. Cookies were
designed to be a reliable mechanism for websites to remember statefull information (such
as items in a shopping cart) or to record the users browsing activity (including clicking
particular buttons, logging in, or recording which pages were visited by the user as far
back as months or years ago).
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Collecting Big Data - an Orwellian reality or an individual fully

assumed risk?
Tracking and analyzing users profiles and personal history across different
online environments are among the main activities taken into consideration
when we tackle the subject Big Data. In fact, nowadays every human
activity, from eating habits, sports activities, relationships, hobbies, political
options, relationships, holidays, work life, or payments to medical records
can be online monitored, registered, traced and put into the service of an
advertising campaign, a political debate or a fundraising initiative, just to
name a few. The market opportunity of browsing through the digital
footprints of the online consumer can be and is already translated for each
type of institutions into insights, predictions and activities trends. In the
view of this online magnifying glass, the question that both the consumers
and the companies should ask is where privacy and confidentiality stand?
This Big Brother concerns are not new, but they are renewable, as the
world becomes more connected, through phones, Internet, computers,
networks and video cameras. Data can be transferred, sold, processed,
stored and used in ways that only George Orwell or Aldous Huxley have
imagined. Nowadays, even a new specialization has emergeddata brokers.
They work for companies who gather, harvest and then redistribute highly
personal data about persons to anyone willing to pay for it.

No more than 15 years ago (Google was created just the year before, and
Facebook or Twitter did not exist yet), Scott McNealy, at that time CEO of
Sun Microsystem5, put it very briefly - consumer privacy issues are a red
herring and you have zero privacy anyway in a meeting with journalists.
His statement raised many problems and was followed by numerous
critical points of view. For the purpose of our article, we quote Stephen
Manes, editor at PC World (an??). He affirmed, he (McNealy) is right
on the facts, wrong on the attitude. Its undeniable that the existence of
enormous data-bases on everything from our medical histories to whether
we like beef jerky may make our lives an open book, thanks to the ability of
computers to manipulate that information in every conceivable way. But I
suspect even McNealy might have problems with somebody publishing his
familys medical records on the Web, announcing his whereabouts to the

5. Sun Microsystems, Inc. was a company that sold computers, computer components,
computer software, and information technology services and that created the Java
programming language and the Network File System.In 2010was acquired by Oracle.
838 Strategica 2014

world, or disseminating misinformation about his credit history. Instead

of getting over it, citizens need to demand clear rules on privacy, security,
and confidentiality.

14 years later, in 2013, the world encountered a new face of the problem,
as Edward Snowden6 leaked the information regarding National Security
Agencys (NSA)7 program called PRISM8. This brought a new perspective
regarding the value of privacy and confidentiality and many citizens
become more aware of the possible implications data-mining could have.
Nine in ten (88%) US consumers are at least a little concerned about the
privacy of their personal data, new figures show (GfK, 2014).

According to Clemons et al. (2014), there are three directions when it

comes to online privacy. The first one addresses the not allowed actions
targeting someones personal space. Usually, these are sponsored actions
such as spam, pop-up advertising, and online marketing. The second type
implies a more serious threat about a persons privacy, including identity
theft and fraudulent activities. The third type is a more silent, but the most
profound, the personal profiling developed by companies like Google or
Facebook in order to obtain advertising benefits. The personal profiling
includes all the types of information mentioned above, blended together
in order to better understand who is the persons using their services.
Although most of the companies claim that such measurements are mostly
for helping customers to receive a personalized service, in reality the
potential of personal data rises above the basic needs.

6. Edward Joseph Ed Snowden is an American computer professional who leaked

classified information from the National Security Agency, starting in June 2013.
7. The National Security Agency (NSA) is a U.S. intelligence agency responsible for
global monitoring, collection, decoding, translation and analysis of information and data
for foreign intelligence and counterintelligence purposes - a discipline known as Signals
intelligence. NSA is also charged with protection of U.S. government communications
and information systems against penetration and network warfare
8. PRISM is a clandestine mass electronic surveillance data mining program launched in
2007 by the National Security Agency (NSA), with participation from an unknown date
by the British equivalent agency, GCHQ. PRISM is a government code name for a data-
collection effort known officially by the SIGAD US-984XN. The Prism program collects
stored Internet communications based on demands made to Internet companies such as
Google Inc. under Section 702 of the FISA Amendments Act of 2008 to turn over any
data that match court-approved search terms.
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As mentioned earlier, people have started to be more preoccupied about

their online presence. As recently as 2013, Pew Research, in a study
regarding anonymity, privacy, and security online, revealed that 64% of
people seeking online privacy clear their cookies and browser history,
while 41% have disabled cookies. The same study found that 86% of the
Internet users have tried to be anonymous online and they have taken at
least one step to mask their behavior or avoid being tracked, and 55%
have taken measures to hide from specific persons or organizations. To
encourage free online navigation, many of the available browsers have
an anonymous browsing mode option. Moreover, there are a series
of applications that enable anti-tracking software, in order to erase the
browsing history and other data. For example, AdBlock Plus, one of the
most popular browser extension for blocking banner ads, pop-up ads,
rollover ads, preventing visiting known malware-hosting domains, and
disabling third-party tracking cookies and scripts, has been downloaded by
300,000,000 people (according to their own statistics). Some add-ons, for
example Lightbeam for Firefox, allow users to visualize the first and third-
parties sites s/he interacts online. Other reports highlight the increasing
use of ad blocking add-ons for browsers and even Google trends reports
(2013) showed that this type of software has an annual growth of 43%.
For example, IAB report from 2012 regarding the consumer and online
privacy stated that 45% of the respondents used clean-up programs and
30% used ad-blocking software. A 2013 report from PageFair9 estimated
that the average adblocking rate on 220 monitored website was 22.7%.
According to their estimation, the adblock rate will continue to increase,
reaching a 100% level in 2018.

Regardless though, for every action taken in order to protect the users
privacy, there is a counterpart that reminds them about the facilities they
may gain from offering personal information. The online industry, and not
only, has made a purpose from gathering as much as possible data, in order
to offer a personalized experience to each consumer. From advertisers, to
governments and nongovernmental organizations, each of them looks for
opportunities to have access to users data, in order to mine it and to be
able to perform their activities even better.

9. PageFair is a free service that allows websites owners to measure how many of their
visitors block ads, and attempt to recover the lost revenue. For the mentioned report, they
have been collecting anonymous data on adblocking behavior from their clients in 2012.
840 Strategica 2014

Research methodology
We propose in this paper an exploratory research in order to map the
relation between the consumer and selected companies in what concerns
the use of their data and the terms and conditions they agree upon when
they start using their services and products. Our aim is to compare the
type of information requested by two international companies and
two Romanian companies from their users through the Terms and
Conditions - contractual relations. Our methodological approach
consisted in analyzing the online documents publicly posted on each
companys website and conducting content analyses of the terms and
conditions specified. The analysis unit has been the theme and the text
we have studied are the provisions from Terms and Conditions. The main
themes we have identified are: what data is being asked from users, how
the data is created and used, and if the data can be used by third parties. All
these themes have been split in sub-categories, for a more detailed analysis.

The coding process for each sub-category envisages giving points,

incrementally, for each type of action required by the terms and conditions
in relation to how much they are invading the intimacy and personal cyber
space of the users.

As a result, the coding process for the analyzed text has been the following:

A. Data provided by users consisted in the following sub-categories co:

account requirement, restrictions related to creating an account, type of
information being displayed, options to restrict the companys access to
personal data.
a. Account requirement: 1 - users need an account, 0 - users dont need an
account.
b. Restrictions related to creating an account: 1 - restrictions are in place,
0 - restrictions are not in place.
c. Type of information being displayed: each type of information displayed
received one point.
d. Options to restrict the companys access to personal data: 1 point for
each limitation in service delivery the company is putting in place once the
user decides to restrict the companys access to the personal data.
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B: How data is created and used consisted in the following sub-categories:

content property (creating, sharing, uploading, submitting, storing,
sending, receiving), data storage, ceasing services.
a. Content property (creating, sharing, uploading, submitting, storing,
sending, receiving): each type of activity performed with the raw data
receives 1 point; each activity that is performed with the secondary data
(processed information of the users) receives 0.5 points.
b. Data storage: storage of data indefinitely - 2 points, storage of data for
definite amount of time based on self regulation - 1 point, storage of data
according to law - 0 points.
c. Ceasing services: arbitrary cease of services - 2 points, cease of service
due to misconduct of user - 1 point, cease of service based on contractual
terms - 0 points;

C. Third party data usage consisted in the following sub-categories: use

of data for the companys purposes; sharing data and using data for other
purposes, tracking, monitoring and personal information analysis; data
transfer in other countries; transparency on law enforcement requests.
a. Use of data for the companys purposes: for each purpose the personal
data is used - 1 point;
b. Sharing data and using data for other purposes, tracking, monitoring and
personal information analysis: all data is shared based on the acceptance of
T&C - 2 points, data is shared based on legal regulation - 1 point, no data
is shared with third parties - 0 points.
c. Data transfer in other countries: data transferred without restrictions
once the T&C accepted - 1 point, data transferred based on legislation - 0
points.
d. Transparency on law enforcement requests: law enforcement requests
made public - 0 point; law enforcement requests not made public: 1 points.

The criteria for selecting the four companies were their impact upon
consumers in terms of daily use and the potential of generating data (over
1 million users, highly rate of daily content creation and sharing, number
of monthly visits) and their turnover (over 500,000 Euro). Besides that,
we took into consideration their location, including two Romanian-based
842 Strategica 2014

companies. These companies are Google Inc., Facebook Inc., which are
American based companies, and Dante International (owner of Emag.ro),
and Orange, which are Romanian based companies.

Founded in 1998, Google Inc. has set itself the mission to organize the
worlds information and to make it universally accessible and useful.
According to the companys financial reports, Google Inc. turnover
in 2013 was USD 57.86 billion, the highest since the company was
established, and currently, they process over 40,000 search queries every
second on average, meaning more than 3.5 billion searches per day and
1.2 trillion searches per data, year worldwide. Taking into consideration
the information offered by in4mation insights10, a company specialized
among other in Big Data, Google processes more than petabytes11 a day. As
Kulathuramaiyer and Balke (2006) stated, in the light of constant growth,
Google is not really a competitor anymore, but already the environment.

The second company included in our research is Facebook Inc. Started as

a student membership website, Facebook has surpassed at the beginning
of 2014 1.23 billion monthly active users12, 945 million mobile users,
and 757 million daily users.

Emag.ro is one of the largest Romanian online stores, owned by Dante

International. It started in 2001 as an online platform selling stationery
and calculus systems. Currently, the online magazine offers products from
a broad series of categories, from electronic equipment to cosmetics, toys,
movies and fast moving consumer goods (FMCG). In their financial
documents, the company reported 4 million users/month in 2013, and a
turnover of 187 million Euros.

10. in4mation insights, located in Needham, MA, was founded in 2006 by Mark Garratt
and Steve Cohen. Their vision is to evolve the field of analytics and marketing research
beyond the standard methods by providing the marketplace with highly innovative
solutions and predictive tools.
11. A petabyte is 1,048,576 gigabytes
12. According to Facebook, active user is defined as an user who has logged into
Facebook at least once in the previous 30 days.
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Orange Romania is the France Telecom brand that offers worldwide

mobile communications services, Internet and television, having 183
million clients worldwide. In Romania, it has 10,382,481 clients (as of
October 2013) and a turnover of over 917,000 Euro. For this paper, we
have analyzed the terms and conditions stated in the contract for the
postpaid voice services.

Table 1. Comparison of Terms and Conditions from Google Inc, Facebook

Inc, Emag.ro, and Orange Romania
Orange
Romania
Google Facebook
Terms and conditions Emag.ro (voice
Inc. Inc.
postpaid
contract)
Data provided by users
Account requirement 1 1 1 1
Restrictions from 1 1 0 1
creating an account
Public information 3 3 0 0
displayed
Options to restrict the 1 1 1 1
companys access to
your personal data
How data is created and used: content property (creating, sharing, uploading, submitting,
storing, sending, receiving); data storage, ceasing services
Content property 9.5 4.5 9.5 1
(creating, sharing,
uploading, submit-
ting, storing, sending,
receiving)
Data storage 1 1 2 0
Ceasing services 2 1 1 -
Third party data usage: use of data for the companys purposes; sharing data and using data
for other purposes, tracking, monitoring and personal information analysis; data transfer in
other countries; transparency on law enforcement requests.
Use of data for the 7 13 8 7
companys purposes
Data transfer in other 0 1 1 1
countries
844 Strategica 2014

Sharing data and using 2 2 2 2

data for other purposes
Tracking, monitoring 2 2 2 0
and personal informa-
tion analyze
Transparency on law 0 0 1 1
enforcement requests
Total 30.5 31.5 27.5 14
Results and discussions: there are close scores obtained by the companies
which have been analyzed, apart from Orange, for which we have taken
into account only one service. The highest scores are being recorded in
those areas where the information is not only recorded but also processed
and then either sent to other partners or sold for commercial purposes.
The other high score is obtained in the area where personal information of
users is treated as a commodity - where companies ask for this commodity
in exchange to providing a certain service. In the rush to collect data, to
share it, to analyze it, to process it, to mine it, in order to offer tailored
services and to take advantage of every innovation, companies and
consumers find themselves in middle of a strong debate regarding the
privacy and confidentiality. Also, there are not big differences between the
Romanian company and the US based ones - a sign that although the UE
has tough regulation as regards personal data, they are either not applicable
in Romania yet or the Romanian company is just doing things its way.
The only big difference is in the sub-category how much of the personal
information is displayed, where both Google and Facebook have higher
scores than the Romanian companies. Its most probably something which
relates with the type of business, rather than the care for the privacy rights
in the case of the Romanian companies analyzed.

Fully securing our online data is no longer possible, and our online activities
are subject to monetization, development and research. Consumers deserve
to benefit from high standards of commitment from the companies
they trust their information with. This means that both companies, and
customers should act in a more responsible way confronted with personal
and sensitive information. In the users case, many of them tend to be
unaware of the potential dangers of over-sharing information on different
online environments and the ways other persons, not companies, might
take advantage of that specific information. The best example in this case
Camelia CRIAN, Alexandra ZBUCHEA,
845
Steliana MORARU

is sharing information about ones location or holidays location, leaving an

open space for potential thieves. Also, research (Asay, 2013) and different
experiments show that many users do no read the terms and conditions
and the privacy policies13.

Besides this, for the persons who read these documents, the language
and the particularities of certain terms (e.g. data storage and legislation)
might not be easy to understand. This leads us to the responsibility of
the company. Under the faade of tailored services, we could see that
the companies practices go further. They can track many of our online
activities, be it on their website or on others. Everything is measured and
analyzed, making possible for third parties to benefit or could lead to a
discriminatory profiling based on age, race, ethnicity etc.
In essence, our paper raises a few interesting issues to explore further:
personal information and online actions are becoming commodities.
At the same time, trade and revenues are generated by the primary and
secondary processing of personal data. The actions of the companies are in
a grey area, due to the fact that the information requested by Terms and
Conditions is voluntary provided.

To put everything in balance is easy, but finding the right way to focus on
the responsible way of collecting more data, because this is what future
reveals to us, is a real challenge. The debate goes now to the ethical sphere,
where the battle between acceptable and not acceptable, and the context
and the purpose will play a bigger role in defining the ethical framework,
more than legislation.

13. Two situations are popular among the examples given to sustain these affirmations.
In 2004, PC Pitstop, a company active in the technology field, put a clause in its end-
user license agreement, offering $1,000 to the first person who emailed the company at
a certain address. Only after five months and 3,000 sales, someone wrote the company
asking for the sum of money. Another recent example, from 2010, refers to Gamestation,
a computer game retail, which wanted to play a joke for April fools day, mentioned in
their Terms and conditions that the users would sell them their souls. They added the
immortal soul clause to the contract signed before making any online purchase, stating
that customers grant the company the right to claim their soul. In that day, 7500 online
agreements were signed.
846 Strategica 2014

What we see from our research is a need to invest more in the digital
education of the consumer, to help him / her better understand his/her
choices, the possible consequences of his/her online activities and the
impact these could have upon shaping the legislation.

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