The podcast “The Privacy Paradox – note to self” (WNYC Studios) consists of 5 newsletters, which include “tips and a short podcast explaining the science, psychology, and tech behind that day’s challenge.” (The Privacy Paradox, https://project.wnyc.org/privacy-paradox/) Now that you have listened to all five episodes, it is time for us to reflect upon each day’s challenge.
Please use this blog entry to write about two episodes of the Privacy Paradox that particularly spoke to you. Which two episodes and their challenges provided the most interesting learning experience for you? For example, in the fourth episode, “Fifteen Minutes of Anonymity” the question is raised how someone can be close to oneself. In which ways could the challenges support you feeling “close(r) to yourself”? Additionally, did you further engage with recommended apps, browser add-ons, and your social media privacy settings? If yes, what did you do? What was interesting to find out about yourself? And last but not least, in which ways did the challenges encourage you to take back control of your digital identity? What are your “Personal Terms of Service”?
The two episodes of the podcast that most stood out to me where the one about the kid who was accused of being one of the boston bombers and the one going into facebook privacy settings. with these two episodes i had to really reflect on how my social media use can be turned agsinst me in the result of my death and cause me to have a legacy I never intended. By listening to these podcasts I did further engage with recommended apps, browser add-ons, and your social media privacy settings by making my twitter private, deleting hundreds of tweets and locking my twitter and instagram down. It was interesting to see how my social media looked like in the eyes of others by setting up all these privacy settings. and i feel like from all the challenges the prodcast asked I have regained back control of your digital identity. IN terms of my personal use of service I am going to start to interact with my social media less and perhaps keep more to myself while sharing.
I found the first episode interesting, the base of the episode was talking about metadata and how companies have access to all your information when you click to accept terms and conditions. In the podcast pervious to the first day, a Harvard professor spoke about how she considers this surveillance capitalism. This is because companies are spying on you to gain information and create predictive algorithms to sell you things. When the person mentioned that you can go on your phones settings to see what apps are requesting to use your location, that interested me and it made me turn off the location of all my apps. I think that declining terms and conditions or turning off location settings will help stop companies from getting that information to use but I think the government has the capability to access that information regardless of what you do. The other episode that interested me was the one we listened to in class about the innocent college kid accused of being a terrorist. I think that it speaks towards the mob mentality of the internet and once one person says something, people will start to listen and it gets to the point where so many people believe it that people couldn’t I gain its false considering how many people believe it. Sadly, once you are on peoples radar, its hard to get off it, and I think that can ruin peoples lives. I personally don’t really care if companies and the government see my stuff but I would care if I started to see that information be used negatively against me.
I found episode 5 interesting. The concept that we are able to be asked for our data, we can control what companies look at, we can control how much we want to expose to others and if they do not agree to our terms we can deny them access. The creator of the internet (www. creator) is able to develop such technology is astonishing. I do believe if an individual cares enough about their data than they will take this advice to control and look for there data. I have created my own Terms of Service and plan to implement them in future choices.
I also found episode 2 interesting. I never looked at old school door to door salesmen were the first to initiate the profiling that is now applied to us via the internet and this explains many of the altering prices and targeted advertisements. I liked how the information out there on an individual is due to the individual welcoming the companies into their world and allowing them to track and define you as the consumer. I have used and altered some of the settings on my Facebook. I found it interesting that they were able to notice I was away from “home” and have placed me in categorizes based on when I was born. I have used the panopticlick and tested my browsers and were surprised by the results I found, although I was mostly protected from many of the trackers. I was happy to learn about digital fingerprinting. And have also used the privacy badger and so far it has helped me be aware of who is “watching” me.
Before watching these videos I was unaware of how much personal information is stored and analyzed through social media. Even the information that is not shared by the user can be found through the use of pictures and information posted. For example, on facebook, you are able to see characteristics that you may have not directly mentioned, but is assumed. One of these descriptions that can be found is one’s affinity towards another race. I do not like that facebook can assume things that may not be true about a person. I also found it to be interesting that the producer of The Bachelor said that many people feel lied to if they do not have access to information about other people around them. This may be true, but on social media, many people post about the good things that happen to them, not the bad. You are only seeing one side of their life, so in a way you are still being lied to about what their life is actually like. Episode 5 mentions the UK’s new investigative power bill that states every click that is made on the internet should be stored for at least a year. That is crazy to think about because everything you do on the internet is stored and can be accessed at any time. Although I do not believe that the information will be accessed unless absolutely necessary, I still find it creepy that the information is stored and is not forgotten about.
I thought the first episode was interesting in talking about all the metadata online that exists and we basically just give it away. In the case of Facebook they gather so much information on us and it is mostly for the purpose of showing you the right ads so that they can make more money. Of course, more sites collect metadata than just Facebook and you never know what you’re giving away when you don’t read the privacy and terms of service when you sign up for something. It was very interesting to see just how much someone could infer from your metadata. I also thought the last episode was interesting when they talked about changing all the rules of the internet where instead of people accessing websites “websites would access you.” Websites would have to ask you for permission to use your data and the whole model of how things work on the internet would change. I did engage with the ad-blocker-type chrome add on. I downloaded it and it is interesting to see just how many sources are accessing my data and also how many are blocked on some websites. It makes me think how secure I was and what data was being gathered before I installed it. The challenges mainly made me more aware of what could happen and what is being gathered. My terms of service I believe would be a little lenient in that it is ok to collect data as long as I can benefit.
Each of the five episodes of the Privacy Paradox contained information that spoke to me in some way. One episode that I found to be particularly fascinating was Episode 3. In this episode, the narrator talks about an instance of a man googling the name of his recently deceased partner and being met with a picture of him in his morgue. For obvious reasons, the man wanted this photo of his partner to be removed from the search results, but was not able to do so very easily. Since 2014 in Europe, the Right to be Forgotten has allowed people to remove certain content from the search results if it is deemed that the content is no longer relevant to the public. I find it fascinating the Europe has this act in place while the United States does not. The next episode that spoke to me was Episode 5. During this podcast, we learn about a concept known as PODS. This is a new way of thinking about the Internet that removes the risk of personal data being overshared. The narrator explains that it is a way for Internet users to gain control; Instead of you logging into websites that store your data, these websites long into you on your own terms. As a frequent Internet user, I would be willing to try the concept of PODS to see how it changes how much personal information is released.
I found episodes 1 and 5 most interesting, possibly because they go together in a way I had never noticed. I have always failed to notice how much information we give away online until this class. Episode 1, which discusses the ways we let online forums access our information by agreeing to terms and conditions, exposed just how frequently and absentmindedly we give away our information. Episode 5, however, discussed ways that this can change or we can get around it. All of this to say, I was considerably naive in my internet use and the way I give away information online and these episodes more or less opened my eyes, as well as this entire class. The only thing I have done outside of these episodes is what we did in class with Facebook and Twitter. Even those small tweaks made me feel more at ease with my social media use. I would like to go back when I have more free time and do more damage control on what I am giving away online. I think this will be beneficial for me!
The two podcast episodes that connected to me and particularly spoke to me was the episode on the former Google designer Tristan Harris, who explains how far Silicon Valley will go to capture and control your eyeballs. And Snapchat artist CyreneQ, who makes her living drawing on her phone all day. This really enlightened the viewer on the power of Silicon Valley and the power of money and how it will use that money to gain the audience and viewer. The next episode was the one titled “Your metadata is Showing”. In this episode they let the viewers send in pictures and then they had a man from Xerox Parc, former chief scientist at Amazon, to see what he could deduce. A lot, it turns out. A little Google image search, a little metadata, and we can find where you are. Maybe who you are. What color phone you’re using to take the shot, and how many SIM cards you have. Reading photos is more than a digital parlor trick. It’s the future of commerce, marketing, policing, lending, and basically everything else. This really made me skeptical as to what I post online and what is visible for others to see because there are plenty of people out there, who can gain valuable information on you and your life based on what many people are ignorant and unaware of.
I think that the first episode was very interesting because it gave an overview on how metadata works. It gave us an insight on how social media affects our privacy. For example one of the guests on the podcast was talking about how she wanted to reenter the workforce and she was concerned about how she may come up in searches due to social media. Many people talked about Facebook as being one of the most concerning to their privacy and the ignorance of where their information is going. The other one that I found interesting was when the professor from UPENN was on the podcast. He studied the marketing and advertising industry. He delved into how shopping and advertising has directly marketed to the individual buyer. He started by talking about the peddlers and how they sold certain things to certain people by figuring out what they might like. Now the algorithms profile you and target you for specific advertising of products.
Day 3: Something to hide and Day 4: Fifteen Minutes of Anonymity made me think about the information about me or other people that could be online. Day 3 brought up the right to be forgotten, which is something that I personally agree with. This subject was brought up when looking at the story of Robert who wanted Google to remove a picture of his deceased partner. I think this is a case where it should have been removed, and luckily it was. In Day 4, the issue of how to be close to oneself is posed. In some ways, I have already achieved this, but I still frequently use the internet without much interruption. I haven’t tried any of the challenges, including the challenges for Day 3 or 4, but I think they would be good things to explore. Day 3 posed the issue of what my computer knows about me and what I might not want it to know. Day 4 gives the most interesting and practical challenge, which is to find some time to be truly alone. I think I will look into these challenges and be more aware of what information I share online, and how much I use the internet moving forward. I don’t think I will ever really use the apps or websites though.