In his essay, “Mining Student Data Could Save Lives”, Michael Morris argues that universities should implement data mining technology to prevent crime and make universities safer. Data mining technology would help a university predict crime.
In his essay, Morris uses pathos to gain the attention of his readers. School shootings are events that are emotional for the victims and the people that here about them. He talks about school shootings since it is something that the entire nation is familiar with and horrified of. He uses the school shooting example since a school shooting is an event that could be stopped by monitoring behavioral patterns. A student’s behavioral pattern can be shown through what they do online. Universities can monitor a student’s activity through school computers, conversation through the school’s emails, and the activity that is on the WiFi network. Michael Morris states that universities are not able to access a student’s data until after a catastrophic event has already occurred.
I agree with the author’s argument that universities should use data mining algorithms to monitor potential threats. I think that data mining is not as serious as everyone thinks it is. Whenever a person searches something online browser cookies are used to suggest future online searches. I believe that we also lose privacy when we use social media. I think that it is fine if our privacy is lost to prevent horrifying events such as school shootings.
