Any ideas for civic discourse topic?

Please don't do that topic, it has become so cringey and cliché that any argument used for it or against it will lead you down a rabbit hole that'll hold you up against the mercy of the person marking you. Avoid, avoid, avoid. Does it have to be about something in the USA?

No could be anywhere, yeah I wasn't gona do that topic haha.

For example during class we went over toxic masculinity as a topic just as an example

Goodness, what in the world are you studying? I'd discuss privacy concerns of the 21st century, and tie it into how big corporations that are always seeking to mine people's data to sell a better product. What impact will this have on society tomorrow, etc. -  a lot to talk about here. What do you think?

LOL I KNOW TRUST ME

I like that topic! I will do some research on it and let you know if I got further questions thanks mate!

Okay so now that I did more research on the assignment and more on the topic, I went ahead and went for privacy concerns as my main argument and the purpose of my paper is to have more strict regulations on companies and restrict their freedoms in deciding what to do with our data.

Now I gotta come up with 3 claims, and evidence along with some research to support the evidence.

For the claims, one has to be used to build the argument, one has to be a claim of action/proposal, one has to be a counterclaim

For the evidence, it can be historical, statistical/numerical, research study, anecdotal, expert testimony etc...

I already did 1 claim which is to help build the argument by saying that  companies are in fact collecting and analyzing out data every day.

For evidence I chose some data scientist testimony on this, right now I'm looking for some numbers to back this up as well as maybe some historical evidence.

But currently I'm stuck on the next 2 claims/evidence/research...

One of the claims needs to be a claim of proposal which provides a solution to the problem. For ex say my argument is for more gun control, a claim of proposal would be something like "here is a few steps needed to restrict access to guns". So that would be my claim of proposal, but I'm not sure how I can make a claim of proposal for the audience restrict data mining by companies since this issue is on the government side of things, thoughts? What about what type of evidence/research would go in to support claim?

Finally, my last claim needs to be a counterclaim, which is esentially a claim that anticipates what the opposition is saying, for ex if we talking about how important its to wear mask in public, opposition might say spread of covid is not effected by masks, so I anticipate their claim with a claim of fact that actually wearing the mask makes a big difference.  I feel like just writing this out now, I feel like some people would argue that data mining does not hurt them in any way and I can make a counterclaim that it does in fact hurt the consumer, I'm just not sure what that fact would be and what type of evidence/research would best fit here.

Thanks!

Someone might say that measures have already been taken to protect the user through the implementation of several laws. The General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) is a regulation in EU law on data protection and privacy in the European Union (EU) and the European Economic Area (EEA). It also addresses the transfer of personal data outside the EU and EEA areas. The GDPR's primary aim is to give control to individuals over their personal data and to simplify the regulatory environment for international business by unifying the regulation within the EU. This is why you see countless websites with popups like these the minute you start browsing:



In the USA, you have the 'right to be forgotten' privacy law that was established in 2014; it can be used to force Google and other search engines to delete links to websites, news articles and databases that include personal information considered old, no longer relevant or not in the public interest.

Now you need to speak of ther limitations.

Actually for the claim of proposal I went with a good old "you need to stop your smartphone from tracking your every move" but I need some anecdotal evidence, any suggestions? Some sort of youtube video, quote, picture or something that can put the audience into the situation about how important it is to do basic stuff like turn off location tracking, etc...

I don't understand this, could you explain what you mean? Is this in the reference frame of the customer or vice versa?

Yeah so I need a claim of proposal to ask the audience to do something and since my argument is that data is being mined and the purpose of my paper is I'm guessing to try to get companies from mining our data?

With that in mind, for claim of proposal I went with something like make sure to tweak phone location settings, limit ad tracking, stop google from tracking your every move are some some things that the aduience reading my paper can do in order to prevent companies from mining their data, thoughts?

Well I need some sort of evidence to go with this claim of proposal , the evidence can be anecdotal, possibly a picture or a video that takes the audience  into the situation of someone whos data is mined because they did not do the steps I listed above as an example. So I just need some anecdotal evidence like that.

But before that what do you think of the claim of proposal I put above? Do you think its too stupid and doesn't go with overall data mining argument?

I remember watching this segment with Joe Rogan and Edward Snowden talking about just that:



Sounds anecdotal to me


No, it's right on target.

Also, an argument that can be made is that since Google owns and runs the OS Android, we're constantly at their mercy. Yes there are laws that protect, but how do we know there aren't any backdoor exploits that they don't tell us about? Just something to consider

Perfect! I will leave this thread open for a bit until I submit the assignment maybe I might have questions later, thanks!

👍👍 Any time

Any ideas for what type of image to put in my intro to reinforce my intro?

In my intro I basically build up the argument that companies are using customer data for profit. I talk about

- How more data is being generated in the 21st century.

- How our phones know our location at all times, obviously for GPS purposes but this also opens a gate for big companies to sell products based on that data.

- I talk about how if you were to purchase something in the morning, you would find something similar on your other social media apps which is targeted advertising

I talk about more in the intro but those were the big points, with that in mind any recommendations for what picture to use to reinforce those points above? Thanks