Often writers are asked to explain how certain conditions or events are related to the occurrence of other conditions or events. When a writer argues that "one thing leads to another," he or she is making a cause-and-effect argument. For example, in an Economics class, students might be asked to explain the impact of increasing oil prices on the nation’s economy. Inherent in the question is the assumption that increasing oil prices is a cause, which produces specific effects in the rest of the economy. So, higher oil prices produce higher gasoline prices raising the cost of shipping goods. Higher oil prices produce higher jet fuel costs raising the cost of travel, and so on. "Higher oil prices" is the cause, and increased shipping costs and travel expenses are among the effects.
Writing tasks involving cause and effect analysis usually take one of two forms: explaining how a known cause produces specific effects; explaining how specific effects are produced by a previously unknown cause (which the writer has discovered). The second type of analysis is commonly referred to as root-cause analysis. The first type of analysis is what the technology and privacy topic requires.
To argue that certain conditions will lead to other conditions (that the loss of privacy will lead to something else), first the writer needs to define clearly what those conditions are, and then the writer needs to make clear how those conditions lead to other conditions. Finally, the writer needs to explain what this cause-and-effect relationship means. This type of essay then has five parts (not paragraphs!), with each part corresponding to a specific task the writer needs to perform, and each part consisting of one or more paragraphs.