Blog #9 Privacy, Online & Off

Technological Tracking

Technology has transformed our society significantly,  both for the better and for worse. 

Although there have been wonderful benefits to the advancement of technology, the impacts in our privacy as a citizen continues to be compromised. Unfortunately, this lack of privacy and security is something that isn't mentioned a lot or talked about. In fact, a lot of times, many people know that there is a lack in security and privacy but have become desensitized to this fact.

For example, in the Ted Talk by Catherine Crump, she shares how the police have extensive data on every individual in case they need it in the future. She even shares how the police have tracking of where you drive, but also photos of you in your car. The specific example she gave was a man who had photographs taken of him and his daughter even in the privacy of their own driveway. The scary thing about this information is that I personally do not even know the amount of information the government has of me and my life. Often times, I joke with my friends because it is obvious how clear the different social media algorithms and technological devices target my specific wants and needs. The types of ads I received are often concurrent with what I have talked about with other people during the week.

One of my favorite stories was of a couple years ago, I was jokingly talking about baby names with my friends because that topic came up randomly. After having this conversation, my ads on Youtube and Instagram were of "mom" cars, pampers, prenatal vitamins, and more. Obviously, I was not pregnant, but sometimes I get nervous because if my ads revolve around this topic, I'm scared the internet and government know more about me than I do potentially. This is because, in my old Media and Popular Culture class, my professor shared how a young teenager was receiving ads like these in which her father tried to sue Target for "suggesting inappropriate behavior." Unfortunately, this teenager actually ended up being pregnant, and even worse was that her phone knew before she even did. 

Obviously, our privacy is incredibly important to our overall safety. With the lack of privacy comes the worse susceptibility to manipulation. For instance, the other morning my roommate came to my room and told me that she woke up craving Bojangles and ended up receiving ads for it that morning as well. She was spooked by this because she had not talked, researched, or looked up anything regarding Bojangles. I told her that it wasn't that her phone read her mind but rather her phone convinced her through subtle marketing that she wanted Bojangles unconsciously. 

This is a perfect video that illustrates social media data privacy awareness for other users.