Chapter 11: Behind the Scenes: Databases and Information Systems
Chapter 11: Behind the Scenes: Databases and Information Systems
After reading this chapter, you should be able to answer the following questions:
- What is a database, and why is it beneficial to use databases?
- What components make up a database?
- What types of databases are there?
- What do database management systems do?
- How do relational databases organize and manipulate data?
- What are data warehouses and data marts, and how are they used?
- What is an information system, and what types of information systems are used in business?
- What is data mining, and how does it work?
Discussion Questions
Chapter 11
- Internet databases abound with personal information about you. You probably provided some of this information, but it may have been sold to other companies. Other information about you may have been obtained without your knowledge while you surfed Web sites. Consider the following:
- Is it ethical for a company to sell personal information (such as household income) that you voluntarily gave to it?
- Is gathering information about people's surfing and buying habits by tracking their clicks through a Web site an invasion of privacy?
- Should Web sites be legally required to inform users that they are tracking surfing habits? Why or why not?
- The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) maintains large databases about taxpayers that include a wealth of information on personal income that can be easily sorted by geographic location. This information would be of great value to marketing professionals for targeting marketing programs to consumers. Currently, the IRS is prohibited from selling this information to third parties. However, the IRS (and other government agencies) are under increasing pressure to find ways to increase revenue or decrease expenses.
- After the terrorist attacks on September 11, 2001, some U.S. citizens began demanding more scrutiny of foreign nationals and people wishing to emigrate to the United States. In response to these concerns, the Department of Defense launched the Total Information Awareness (TIA) program through the Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA). The program was created to develop data-mining techniques to probe massive federal databases as well as commercial and private employment, medical, and financial databases. The objective was to spot trends that would identify people who were threats to national security. TIA gave rise to many protests from the American public and privacy advocates about the potential invasion of provacy that such programs could engender. Although TIA's funding was cut by Congress in 2004, various other programs live on as the government uses other databases to monitor activity. For instance, in May 2006, it was revealed that millions of Americans' phone calls were being monitored, causing further public outcry about invasion of privacy.
- Research government programs that are currently in place. What data-mining efforts is the U.S. government currently using to monitor data?
- Do you think the government should institute programs like TIA? Why or why not?
- Which is more important to you: safeguarding your privacy or protecting the United States from terrorists? Why?