Saturday, December 14, 2013

Online Assignment 4/5 _Alvarado Silverman

Looking at the information that Facebook had on me was honestly somewhat anticlimactic. From how Professor Wells described it I was kind of expecting them to know my home address and the name of my first dog, or some other sort of crazy information. All the information they had on me was pretty predictable, such as the pages I like, photos I've uploaded or been tagged in, and any other information that I knowingly have them. I'm also not surprised that Facebook uses my information for advertising purposes. Ever since i started using Facebook, I've noticed advertisements on the site that relate to things I've searched on the internet. What was interesting about finding my information on Facebook was how easy it was. It was cool to see that I can bring up so much about myself in just seconds.
Google was somewhat more interesting than Facebook. I never use my Google account, so besides basic information such as gender or age, all the information they had on me was based on my search history. The amount of information they gathered from my search history did not surprise me, but the fact that they were able to realize my interests based on this history was impressive. Although not all the interests were correct, most were. They knew i liked sports, especially Football, Basketball and Soccer. They knew I really liked music, and even knew I specifically liked Hip-Hop a lot. This was more interesting to me than Facebook because while they both knew a lot of information about me, Google seemed to apply this information much better than Facebook did.
Although the fact that my information is readily available online did not surprise me, I think this exercise helped me realize just how simple it could be for someone to learn about me now that we are living in a digital society. In some ways this is cool, as it becomes easier to know someone than before, but in some ways it is also scary, because people with bad intentions have easier access to your personal life.

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