Welcome back to Week Two of EDCI 336. This week, we learned about privacy and technology. The main component of this week’s lecture was to educate us on how little internet privacy we actually have. We were shown firsthand how much and how quickly websites collect loads of personal data, and how scary it is.
Privacy:
I would say that I have always been aware of the way the internet tracks and collects data, however, after this particular class I can say I did not know the extent nor the speed in which most websites collect your information. This level of information gathering was shown to us by visiting several websites that show what kind of data is collected. The website that I thought best showcased the level of data collected was called “Privacy.net“. I feel that it shows the information collected in a clear and analytical way, whereas the other two websites were more gimmicky. I learned from this website that they can see what battery percentage the device you are using is at. This may not seem like anything, but it makes me feel less secure, as I imagined that battery life was tied to the device in a way that was not visible to websites. It also causes me to ask, why is that data that they need to collect? Why do they care what percent my device is at?
After learning all this information we were asked to share how we felt. Like many of my classmates I was scared. This was an eye opening experience for me as, like I said I did not fully understand the depth at which websites go to to extract data. At the end of the day I guess I shouldn’t be to surprised as these websites and companies bottom line is making money and selling our data is the best way to do that. The image below is my lecture notes for this particular subject.
Connection:
The purpose of this lecture was to make us more aware of digital safety so that we can make our future students more aware. It was said in the lecture that “We as teachers have a responsibility to protect students and their info online”. One thing we can consider is how we set up digital spaces for our students. Can we find alternatives to companies that we know sell all the data they collect?
Conclusion:
Really this whole thing comes down to convenience versus privacy, and how much are we willing to give up in order to have easier lives? Lots of these websites/companies have “terms of service” or “cookies” to agree to before you can use them, and almost everybody, including me, does not read them and just agrees for the sake of convenience, because what else are we going to do?