Thursday, November 19, 2009
Digital Exposure
At the beginning of the course we signed up for a variety of online accounts. At the time many were nervous about revealing personal data and even struggled with choosing user-names etc. I read an interesting article in Discover Magazine (hard copy version) entitled Digital Exposure by Elizabeth Svoboda. The article discusses online data mining that gathers details about our personal lives and habits from our online activities. It then discusses negative ways that this information can be used. I was not able to find the actual article online but Shirley Frazier discusses the article in How to Protect Yourself Against Data Mining. Also, the article can be obtained as a podcast from AIRS-LA: Audio Internet Reading Service of Los Angeles. #i3cs21
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Oooh! The reason I have kept off the internet is for this exact reason! Thank you for at least giving me some realistic info about why we need to be careful. This course makes it seem like it is perfectly safe, and even desireable to put your information out there. I am disappointed that our teacher has told us to sign up for everything with out much guidance and with out any warning of the consequence. I guess I knew better, but I am very concerned at what we have all opened our selves up to.
ReplyDeleteI didn't mean to imply that our Ning, Twitter, and other accounts are the primary cause of concern in this area. We leave a digital data trail daily with a variety of activities. Whenever we use a credit card or a store loyalty card, subscribe to a magazine, use our cellphones etc. we leave a trail. Even when we write paper checks, their images are eventually digitalized and are accessible online. The current move is to digitize our medical records. Imagine where that might lead. I think we need to be aware that data mining is occurring and its ramifications. We need to be alert and take care when and where we can. If you really want to be stunned, take a look at the book Spychips: How Major Corporations and Government Plan to Track Your Every Move with RFID by Katherine Albrecht and Liz McIntyre
ReplyDeleteI don't see a way to correct a comment so I'll add another. I meant "digitized" not "digitalized". Sorry.
ReplyDeleteWhen I was a student in high school, I remember a discussion my English class was having about George Orwell's book 1984. Back then (ironically enough, 1983-1984) the ideas that we discussed about our future included some of the very same topics of discussion that are mentioned in the above comments and article.
ReplyDeleteI agree completely with Laurie “I guess I knew better, but I am very concerned at what we have all opened our selves up to.”
Interesting conversation with your colleagues. Forewarned is forearmed they say.
ReplyDeleteDennis Richards
To comment on computeach's comment, you're right in that everything we do is being digitize. On a personal note, the grocery store I frequent offered a device you could put in your card to scan and bag your own items. I tried this a couple of times and felt "violated" when I turned the aisle and the device showed me the items I usually bought from this aisle and which ones were on sale. As Mr. Mean alluded to the novel 1984, that was the first time I truly felt Big Brother was watching. I have not used one since...
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