The course of this semester has truly opened my eyes to the horrors of online surveillance and privacy. I have said it numerous times in my blog posts that we are very much aware about the data being collected every time we are on the internet. Growing up I always knew deep down that it was happening and I chose to ignore it. My real question now as an adult is that, why did we ignore it before it was too late? Carissa Veliz wrote “By now, most people are aware that their data is worth money. But your data is not valuable only because it can be sold. Facebook does not technically sell your data, for instance. Nor does Google. They sell the power to influence you. They sell the power to show you ads, and the power to predict your behavior”. I never thought about it in that sense. Big data companies could care less about my personal data, more or rather they want to have control over my decisions on the internet. Companies will offer benefits and options to take advantage of our desires, whilst predicting our next move at the same time. They are the puppeteers and we, the puppets.
Similarly, YouTube also watches what we’re doing and eventually brings it up on our feed. I will watch countless cooking videos but the one time I watch an ASMR video, suddenly it is all over my explore page. Veliza stresses on taking a stand for your privacy. “If a clothing company asks for your name to sell you clothes, give them a different name – say, Dr Private Information, so that they get the message”. As much as I would love to say that, I don’t think I have the guts. However, I can opt out of 20% of a discount, I think I’ll live! Anyways, if there is something I have learned from this course, it is to stop oversharing. My socials were public, my browser was public, and I even signed up for almost everything. It’s definitely easier said than done but sometimes you just have to rip off the bandaid because it’s not that difficult.
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