Day #7 Activity/Artifact - “Do Not Track”
Episode 1: Morning Rituals
During the first episode, the information I inputted upon prompt was where I go for my news which I entered: oregonlive.com. The results that followed were interesting. The number of third parties that are tracking me were 11 and some of which I had never heard of before. After the first episode I learned that trackers were third parties that were notified when a person visits a site and they collect data and track where and when that person accesses a site on the internet. With this data, third parties record browsing history and what connects, also, it creates a profile that gets auctioned to other trackers that would benefit from the profiled person. On Amazon trackers do not operate. This is because users give the website their information freely themselves. Our data footprint impacts everyone else. Your data is used to judge, serve power over, connect, and compare to other people.
Being tracked on the internet, phone, or and form of technology is a reality. People are becoming more and more aware of this and naturally the majority strives to avoid this happening. But is it possible? Can one really avoid being tracked? The answer is yes but the steps to get to that point are tedious. These steps include: “Clean your Internet browsing history after every use... create specific passwords for each account...avoid JavaScript search engines...use Tor and a Linux Live Image, like Tails... don’t reply to suspicious emails and never accept friendship requests from people you don’t personally know...encrypt your email messages...use a burner laptop and cell phone...use Bitcoins...don’t post overly personal details anywhere online...read all the fine print...pay attention to your privacy settings and updates to privacy options...[and] for the really paranoid: abandon all tech; use only paper, pen, typewriters and in-person chats and photo-sharing, the old-fashioned way” (Omur). With these multiple steps it can be likely to eliminate being tracked however it is a lengthy, tedious process to follow all of these steps to achieve such thing. The resources as stated above include Tor, Tails, and Bitcoins to help decrease your chances of being tracked. In a sense, if data is currency, your privacy can keep that currency out of the hands of unwanted sources. Do not track works to help shed light and give ways to help this cause to keep your privacy.
The economic origins of online tracking are advertisements, pop-ups; to pay for web startups and to make a profit out of searched subjects on the internet. Cookies are a text file and ID number to remember you the next time that you come back to a site. The types of cookies that exist are either useful or trackers. These relate to consumer profiles by that of tracker the consumers to understand and sell to them based upon their internet history. One method of this that works is the use of pop-up ads. To reach this point it is best to understand how online advertising has evolved. This evolution is described by the absence of internet to internet, ads, pop-up ads, trackers, and information fit to specific people. There are no alternatives to this system if one uses the internet at all unless a new system is made to be bought at which upon review I would spend little to no money on.
The problem with cookies is that they’re invasive and usually unwanted. After research it is known to be able to survive in a cookie environment your options are: “First option: block cookies in your browser..Second option: Use an add-on..Third option: Use the ShareMeNot add-on..” (Glad). These options are resources are available for use to help in such an environment but the situation is still tricky. The effectiveness of these are limited due to two main difficulties: fingerprinting and the fact that trackers are always one step ahead like with the use of zombie cookies. Fingerprinting, “identifies each computer that browses a site according to its configuration (software installed, owned fonts, clock settings etc.),” and zombie cookies are cookies that, “ rise up from their own ashes after having been deleted by users,” (Glad).
To be deducted from this practice is all personal information. The traits it picks up on include race, age, gender, personality, and more. Trackers use this information for a profit and for advertisement. The point of the Illumines pop up was to give sight into what these trackers may do and/ or provide. The relation to character was the use of an algorithm to predict personality and personal information. It also allows for a prediction and access to rates of credit and health insurance. Some of the mentioned algorithms was the Psychodemographic Trait algorithm to predict what type of person I was and the benefits I could receive based upon my Facebook profile. The benefits from a social algorithm like this include the determining of the type of person and character a person may be and how they could relate and interact to others. The significance of a second digital self would be the portrayal of oneself in the light that they’d like others to see and would show evaluations of themselves. Because of this we are not necessarily protected because the government isn’t helping as much as it should.
Even if you don’t have a Facebook profile you are not necessarily safe. Any social media account or any general account that takes personal information such as Netflix, Gmail, Amazon etc. track the information you provide. So whether you have a Facebook profile or not you can still easily be tracked. The phrase ‘you are what you like’ refers to the ability to track a person’s personality, attributes, character, etc. based upon what they like on a media site. However, if you were to like everything on Facebook the site would still be able to track how often you visit each item you liked and broaden the spectrum as to what you are like.
Episode 4: The Spy in my Pocket
The significance of apps to this episode was that it emphasized how personal data is what makes apps work and that they fully rely on it. They need personal information, private data, contacts, and UDID to function. Examples of this is how Google tracks you so accurately. Google tracks based upon various technologies to locate you. The information that can be found in this data can be both personal and relative depending on the information you provide and the sites or places you access painting a picture of who you portray to be. The free Wi-Fi at local businesses allow significance for the profit of the business and presents opportunities of tracking to increase those profits. Often in the terms of use are clauses that can be absurd or unrelated or may be personal data and people often scroll over this concept ultimately agreeing to those actions. These various layers of tracking play out by eliminating any privacy. In Russia thousands of people were registered illegally simply because of their location that was being tracked. The quality being tracked is behavior which you cannot get out of because there is hardly any control over that aspect.
Some of the ways you can protect your smartphone from being tracked are to disable multiple settings such as WiFi, GPS, radio, social media, and more. It is best to avoid this also by not paying through your phone, entering personal data about yourself into any apps or programs and following the steps above. Your smartphone is a risk to your privacy because most people put into it all of their personal information including contacts, places, notes and more. In society today it is common to refer to a phone as having someone’s ‘whole life on there’ portraying the exact reason why a smartphone can be a large risk to your privacy.
Episode 5: Big Data Inside the Algorithms
Algorithms are compiles of data and information used to predict and advance society. Big data are trying to make sense of a collection of data as a population as a whole. The myths that revolve around them are that more data solves more problems which is problematic in that with more data there is a lack of knowledge and more is up for interpretation. The social problems and that the algorithms providing information by knowing others information. These algorithms also are related to advertising through a source of wealth and are traded. After connecting various data points what emerged was advertising, citizens, regulation, worth of and following data. People who hope data solves problems gives it a voice which causes issues of data connections and agent truth. In the future algorithms may be used for open internet surveillance communities and digital platforms.
People are categorized by the data they use and the information they provide through this data. Tools that give a glimpse into these categorizations are any algorithms that a program may have installed. Algorithms are used to predict the future choices of a person similarly to the pre-cogs of ‘Minority Report’ and they present the issue of incorrect information or the major current problem of tracking. To hide her pregnancy from big data Janet Vertesi, “ downloaded Tor, a private browser that routes your traffic through foreign servers. While it has a reputation for facilitating illicit activities, I used it to visit BabyCenter.com and to look up possible names. And when it came to shopping, I did all my purchasing—from prenatal vitamins to baby gear and maternity wear—in cash. No matter how good the deal, I turned down loyalty-card swipes. I even set up an Amazon.com account tied to an email address hosted on a personal server, delivering to a locker, and paid with gift cards purchased with cash,” (Vertesi), proving the drastic measures it takes to avoid these algorithms and tracking. These algorithms and big data pose a threat to civil rights by eliminating privacy and representation dominating our world.
A filter bubble is a realm of filtering based on a persons tracking. It impacts what we come across online by sorting information automatically to show only specifics or recommendations and is constructed by collaborative filtering and the data it uses is common interests. This impacts the truth by showing only what you know or would like resulting in a lack of a big picture and total information. This has changed over time on what it covers and editorial filters aren’t transparent-personalization to only show what you’ll like. Optimization is what we see, are going for, and what we shape our filters to be resulting in a more personalized bubble of results.
Eli Pariser cautions us about the ‘filter bubble’ that it is “a danger that people do not get exposed to viewpoints different from their own” (Wikipedia). This relates to the disappearance of mass media in that as viewpoints are depleting, media becomes more and more centralized into one similar culture of ideas and representations. Facebook argues that it is the fault of their user that their news feed is the way that it is because the algorithms that Facebook uses are based upon the information that the user provides and puts in so the results are focused on what the algorithm provides that the news feed should be showing. Due to dissatisfaction and surveys Facebook has aimed to change the algorithm for its news feed. The efforts Facebook has made for this is to limit the promotional posts and advertisements. It has discovered that people want to eliminate posts that, “solely push people to buy a product or install an app, Posts that push people to enter promotions and sweepstakes with no real context, Posts that reuse the exact same content from ads,” (Facebook for Business). This shows more of what people don’t want instead of hat they do what which exemplifies the theory of filter bubbles and a way to bust this system would be for Facebook to allow for what individuals prefer rather than solely focusing on the general population.
Episode 7: To Change the Future Click Here
The utopian perspective that surrounded the Internet when it first emerged was machines were for logic and would be used to lengthen and improve lives. This played out as intrusion of personal life and ways of thinking. Edward Snowden ‘crashed’ this party by releasing information to the public of how everyone is tracked and allowing government ways to be known by the public. The market and the government impacted the realities of the Internet today by constantly broadcasting and they borrow from one another through that you can’t have one without the other. It is difficult to distinguish between security and privacy because of how closely they are related to each other and the lack of knowledge we are provided about them from the government. We are not using the tools around us to build a society we can be proud of because there is a lack of privacy and we are seeing things we can’t un-see so it is difficult to do anything about it as of now until we are provided with an alternative. The profile & the various futures that emerged from the information you input were both personal and about the population as a whole. Neither of these results worry me because I was agreeable with the personal result and the population result I got was a Big Win future so there was a balance between privacy and the rule of law.
Edward Snowden has affected four major societal pillars: the internet companies, encryption and cybersecurity, the courts, and public opinion (Timm). The biggest of these that have changed the world are public opinion and cybersecurity. Both of these can work hand in hand both beneficially and negatively based upon how government situations play out. Privacy matters in the fact that it is a civil right and supposed benefit from living in the country that we are in. A persons privacy contains personal and/or intimate details of their life as well as data used in programs or industries that they have a right to keep from themselves and away from outside sources. One might get smart on privacy by using technologies that eliminate or hinder tracking, cookies, and other ways of personal data collection or by taking steps and lifestyles that do the same. Reclaiming privacy starts with these measures and requires an upkeep of these steps. We should care about our digital footprint because it “ helps companies target content at specific markets and consumers, helps employers look into your background, and helps advertisers track your movements across multiple websites,”(Internet Society). This also allows for a mix of personal and professional lives to intertwine so that employers, family, peers, and mentors are able to look, find, and track your choices and life in general. Based on research and speculation on who owns data the answer is that, “Ultimately, we all do. A better question is, who owns the means of analysis? Because that’s how, as Brand suggests, you get the right information in the right place. The digital divide isn’t about who owns data — it’s about who can put that data to work,” (Croll). The future of privacy is a tricky concept. As government and industrial power continue to rise the big data collection and ownership will still be linked more closely to them rather than the public population. However, as more people take initiative to take the steps enhancing their privacy and laws and regulations fight for their voice then the privacy of individuals may stand a chance.
Anonymous. 2014. “Your Digital Footprint Matters.” Internet Society. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (http://www.internetsociety.org/your-digital-footprint-matters).
Croll, Alistair. 2011. “Who Owns Your Data?” Mashable. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (http://mashable.com/2011/01/12/data-ownership/#i5Ygg7fdfgqQ).
Facebook for Business. 2014. “An Update to News Feed: What it Means for Businesses.” Facebook. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (https://www.facebook.com/business/news/update-to-facebook-news-feed).
Glad, Vincent. 2015. “How to survive in a cookie environment.” Do Not Track. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (https://blog.donottrack-doc.com/guide-de-survie-en-milieu-cookie/).
Omur, Asli. 2015. “Big Brother Is Watching You Online: How To Avoid Being Tracked.” Lifehack. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (http://www.lifehack.org/articles/technology/big-brother-watching-you-online-how-avoid-being-tracked.html).
Timm, Trevor. 2014. “Four ways Edward Snowden changed the world – and why the fight's not over.” The Guardian. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (http://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2014/jun/05/what-snowden-revealed-changed-nsa-reform).
Vertesi, Janet. 2014. “My Experiment Opting Out of Big Data Made Me Look Like a Criminal.” Time. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (http://time.com/83200/privacy-internet-big-data-opt-out/).
Wikipedia. 2003-15. “Eli Pariser.” Wikipedia. Retrieved January 26, 2016. (https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Eli_Pariser).
