It is
really surprising how much the Internet knows about what you do and who you
are. Even more disturbing is that a lot of the time their inferences are
correct. I looked up my Facebook data first, because I thought it would be less
surprising considering the data on there is all things I have voluntarily
offered up. However, I could not be more wrong. Between listing the past
relationships that I have ever been in and archiving literally everything that
I have ever said or has been put on my wall, I got the sense that Facebook knew
more about me then I thought. It literally had recorded everything that I have
ever done on its site, and apps that I have signed in through my Facebook
account. I never considered that all the information that I had offered up
would be kept in extensive archives, which was certainly a reality check.
The next
thing I checked out was the link to the Google ads analysis page. I wasn’t very
surprised that it knew my age range and gender but the interests category in
both columns shocked me. In the “Ads on Google” category I had banking and
recording industry as my two interests. Now I would definitely say this is an
unrealistic idea of what my actual interests are. I simply use the Internet for
all my banking because it is easier, and as for the recording industry I am not
really sure why that was listed. But when I went to “Google Ads Across the Web”
column my interests were much more accurate. I had a list of 19 interests
including movies, music, shopping, and various genres of music. This was pretty
accurate to my actual interests I can see why Google had made these inferences
about me. However, there was also some weird interests like product review and
price comparisons, online games, and colleges and universities. These weren’t
as accurate, but I am guessing that based off of my search history they are a
reflection of the sites I use on the Internet.
Life in a
digital society is extremely unique and different than anything we have seen
before. Not only do we allow the Internet to gather personal information about
ourselves, but we also allow it to take that information and guide us in our
digital use. Some may view it as a direct interruption of human free will, but
others simply don’t care or know that their lives are being recorded and shared
with others they don’t know. This may seem disturbing to many people who never
grew up with technology but for younger generations, it just seems a necessary
part of life. This exercise really showed me the extent of what we are putting
on the Internet, which really shocked me. I had previously learned about how
big search engines record your data and use it to pick ads it shows you, but it
was a whole different experience seeing how it directly relates to my online
footprint. I think this is an exercise that every person should do because it
really makes it clear how you are seen online. This footprint is becoming more
and more central to our lives as more things go online. Younger generations
communicate and put their whole lives on the Internet for anyone to see and
think they are invincible. But the truth is, no one can predict how their
information is being used or who is viewing it. Until our society realizes
this, they allow others to control their decisions just through the click of
their mouse.
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