FALSIFYING PERSONAL DATA TO ADDRESS ONLINE PRIVACY ISSUES

Companies today track people’s browsing activity and collect their personal information. Amazon transactions cover 50% of the online transactions in the USA, and Google and Facebook cover most of the digital advertising. However, a significant disconnect exists between how the data is being used, sold, or shared, and what the user actually may want. Currently, no law or regulation encompasses how data brokers should handle private information. Several incidents, as Snowden revelations, Brexit, Cambridge Analytica scandal influencing on the United States election vote in 2016, are an example where Big Data collection of personal data is misused. Online users are adopting criminal like behavior to protect their own information. Considering the collection of personal information to be unfair, users are withholding personal data or giving false information. This paper proposes a Design Science Research study methodology to assess if falsifying personal data in online forms prevent the leak of personal information. It is very important to educate students to protect information infrastructure at their future work place and also keep the same practices when it comes to their private information.