Information mining:

Edward Snowden's release of classified NSA documents revealed the government's top-secret program to spy on its citizens using a supposed "google back door". While the technology to mine information exists and becomes increasingly sophisticated, the use of such technology remains controversial. Examine the ethical implications related to government organization mining its citizens' personal information.

Explanation Essay:

The Explanation essay elaborates on and explains the ethical issue or phenomenon that is the focus of the portfolio project. This explanation concisely defines and describes the topic issue, discussing relevant data and information from at least six (6) sources outside the course materials (note: resources examined in the critical summaries can comprise four of the six). This explanation essay functions to provide a coherent review of relevant research into the ethical issue being examined and will include at least two data commentaries explaining diagrams extracted from these resources (i.e. not student-developed, original diagrams). (1200 words)