Week 2 Privacy

 

My Thoughts on Data Collection



      Every time you use the internet, you leave behind scattered digital footprints. One footprint could be that you order dog food online,  and another could be that you looked up the local college bars. The footprints only give a snapshot into your interests, but when put together, they are a form of yourself on the internet. The footprints are collected by data brokers with the use of cookies, and they're compiled together to create a packet of data with all browsing habits. Data brokers then sell your information to advertisers so that you receive ads that appeal to your interests. From your footprints, advertisers would know that you are a college-aged person who owns a dog. Then from there, data brokers could extrapolate more information to create a clear picture of who you are so that they could sell that information to more advertisers. 

    Some would say that they have no problem with their information being collected and sold for profit, but there are people who don't want their information in the hands of strangers. Anyone could buy this information, and while a dog-owning college student who likes to party may have an innocuous set of data, people could receive information about medical search trends, anything. Data collection concerns me as an American. I believe freedom is precious, and with freedom comes choice. I'd feel a lot more secure in my autonomy if my information was not available to anyone who knows what a data broker is. 

     You can do some things to protect yourself from your information being tracked, but note that these are not foolproof; you could research web browsers that value privacy, and you could use the Tor browser if you want to be anonymous. However, I believe it should not be on the individual to block trackers. I would like to see the government pass a bill that outlines cyber privacy and restricts what can be extracted from web surfers. I would also be surprised if that happened. Big tech has a lot of money for really good lobbyists. 

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