Online Assignment 4/5_Heyler

Online Assignments 4 & 5

Sydney Heyler

J201- Section 310

            I found this assignment to be very insightful and eye opening.  It was interesting and quite surprising to learn how much information the Internet has collected about me over the years.  Every time you enter a search into Google or post something on Facebook, you don’t consider the fact that it’s being documented and used for other purposes.  Every minute detail has been stored in some way. 

Despite entering almost no personal information about myself on my Google profile, Google seemed to know plenty.  Google knew my age group, the fact that I am studying Spanish, many of my interests and more.  There wasn’t anything listed that I can’t say describes me to at least some degree.  I was rather impressed and slightly troubled by the accuracy of it all.  I can’t help but feel slightly “watched” over the years as I utilized Google; it was an important thing to be brought to my attention.  You can’t be ignorant of the fact that nothing that you do on the Internet is private.  The fact that Google can utilize this information to target advertisements at its users is quite simply genius.  I now know that if I see an advertisement for American Football or a travel website it’s because Google knows these are interests of mine and is fully utilizing their data.  I can’t say I blame them, but I can’t say it makes me totally comfortable either.

            My Facebook data was also very interesting to explore.  The information that Facebook had was a bit less shocking since much of it was based on what I have entered/updated on my profile over the years.  What was surprising was the amount of information Facebook had.  I was able to find content about my life from years ago, things that I have completely forgotten about.  It’s amazing to see that Facebook knows your history better than you do.  Facebook doesn’t forget that status posted in 2008 or the private message conversations from the ninth grade.  It has all been documented, recorded and saved forever.  While the thought of that is interesting it is also a bit unsettling to think that a website might just know you better than you know yourself.  Absolutely nothing that you do online is private, and nothing, no matter how many years ago it was, is forgotten.

            This assignment has definitely shifted how I view my Internet usage.  We truly live in a digital society, where nothing is private, and much is known about you without your knowledge.  It was so interesting to see this information brought to my attention and to bear in mind that every time I click my mouse, enter a Google search or post a Facebook status, it is being monitored, recorded and tracked.  While I will not drastically change my Internet behaviors, I will still keep these thoughts in mind going forward.  The digital society is a powerful world and deserves respect for the knowledge it has and influence it exerts.

Assignment 4/5 __ Hively

     This was a very interesting assignment. It showed me how detailed my online profile was. It was also interesting to see how much information I contributed to my own profile, and how much was decided for me. Google decided who I was based on what I do on the Internet. They were also pretty accurate, for the most part. While I am not a fan of Beauty Pageants, Google got most of my other interests spot on.  Facebook was also accurate in delivering ads to my screen. I had no idea that these websites knew so much about me. All of this shows us that we are only in the beginning of the digital age. In the future public profiles will continue to get more detailed, and the more personalized our ads will become. The big question facing the future deals with how they are using that information. Ever since the NSA-Snowden blowup, everyone has been increasingly concerned with online privacy. As of right now, it seems that nothing is private.  Google can find out anything about you because they are with you everywhere you browse. They also tailor your web experience based on things you have done in the past.

            There is also a change in media’s place in society. In the past, media was more passive. Citizens could choose when they wanted media in their lives or out. We could choose if we wanted to read the newspaper or turn on the news. Nowadays, media is becoming more a part of society.  Media is starting to become the way for us to interact in the social realm.  I cannot remember the last time I found out about a new relationship other than through Facebook. Events are spread over Facebook because it is easier than word of mouth. People love social media because they can carefully craft what everyone else can see.  Public profiles carry a lot of risks too. When posting for an audience of 600 friends (and all of their friends), it is important to post things that you want other people to see. Your posts and online activity becomes who you are. Google and Facebook have caused us to carry out online profiles into the real world.

            The personalization aspects of Facebook and a Google have many positives. Google allows me to see relevant advertisements to things I am interested in. Facebook allows me to share exactly what I want to share. In those regards, social media is great. Privacy is where this type of media fails. It magnifies everything that we do. If I were to describe Facebook to someone who lived in the 1970s, I would describe it as if a video camera where to follow you around all day. Every single move is captured and recorded essentially for everyone to see. This is what makes social media dangerous for everyone in my generation. Future bosses can search the histories of Facebook or Twitter and see everything that we have done. Facebook and Twitter have more information on us than we know, and some information we don’t want other people to know.

Online assignment 4/5_Dobbs

     I thought this was a very interesting assignment. I did not even know we could do such things as find out what information certain websites have about us and about our usage on the Internet. The information Facebook had from me was not at all surprising because all of that stuff has been on my Facebook page one time or another. Looking through all of the information was a bit entertaining and was a little "blast from the past" because I have had a Facebook since 7th grade. The information that was a bit surprising was all of the ad information they had. the number of different things to advertise about was outrageous. I never really pay any attention to the ads on Facebook, but it is astonishing knowing how many different ads I have seen. Looking through all of the ads makes sense, however, because I am interested in almost every one of the things that has been advertised. Even new things that just came out a few days ago, Beyoncé's new album for example, has apparently been advertised to me.  This impressed me because they knew that I would be interested in it based on things I have looked at in the past or my related interests. Another thing that surprised me about my Facebook information is that they had my Wiscmail account and I do not ever remember entering that in my information anywhere and do not know how they would have gotten that information.
     As for Google, I had no idea what to expect from this site. The information they had on me as far as my age and gender were accurate, but I do have a Google account so I do not know if they just used that information or not. What they had on me for the language part was also interesting because it shows English and 1 other for me, which is Spanish. This is interesting because I am in a Spanish class currently and use the google translate a lot from English to Spanish or visa versa and never knew that google picked up on that kind of stuff. As far as the interests Google has pegged for me in the ads on Google column, they did not quite suit me. They chose banking, pet food and supplies, recording industry, and reggaeton for me. I feel that I do not particularly search things that fit these topics very often. As for the the other Google ads across the web section, they offered a more accurate selection of my interests. They provided things such as movies, fitness, college and universities, and other things that I find myself involved in. How they received this information is a bit disturbing, and once it is brought to your attention, the whole idea of this is troubling.
     I think all of this shows just how advanced our digital society is getting and how it is forcing ad agencies and websites to do these sorts of things because not as many read the newspaper or buy magazines anymore and it is not as easy for advertisements to be paid attention to. That is why they are resulting to more targeting tactics like the ones we see in this exercise.

Online Assignment 4&5_Kuelbs

When I was looking through my archives in Facebook, I was surprised to see how far back it went.  A lot of history went back to 2008, which means I would have been in seventh or eighth grade.  It's surprising to follow how my interests have changed since then.  Also, I realized that the ads on Facebook are also based on what you have listed as interests.  This explains a lot of the ads that come up.  Also, I have realized that I actually have deleted a lot more friends than I thought.  It was also weird to see who I've friend requested and who never accepted me.  Overall though, as far as pictures go, nothing was too surprising because I edit my albums a lot on Facebook.  I also realized that I did not have many "events" to attend on Facebook before I went to college.  The majority of my events have been from the past year.
I thought the Google information was maybe even more interesting.  They had a lot right about me, like interested in college-related activities.  It also had a lot of information about the types of music I listen to.  Most of it was right, but it was heavy on Brazilian music.  It isn't that I listen to a ton of Brazilian music, but I have been in a Brazilian music class, which explains why I have been searching for it so much on Google and Youtube.  Also, it listed one of my languages as Portuguese, which is also only because I've been on a lot of websites in Portuguese because of the class.
I think the significance of going through this information is that whatever you are searching for online is always being analyzed.  Even if you spend a lot of time researching something that isn't directly related to your personal interests or life, this information is always being sought by advertisers.  This means that information about you is stored, even if it isn't exactly relevant to your life.  Also, I think it's important to note that there is a large history behind Internet users, especially on Facebook.  For many young people, who got their Facebook accounts young, this means that this information is with them for their whole lives online.  I think this is important to note because we should teach younger children to be mindful about what they post - so it doesn't come back to haunt them later.  However, this is difficult because many children don't see this as relevant to their lives immediately.

Online Assignment 4-5_Ryan Wenberg

Ryan Wenberg

12/10/13

J201 Sec. 310           

Online Assignment 4-5

When beginning this assignment, I expected it to be like the VALS assessment of me where they got all of the key information wrong. I was honestly shocked to see how close they were to what I believe are my interests. I will say however that Google was much more exact. They had narrowed it down to twenty-eight slightly broad subjects that they gathered I was interested in based on my searches. Almost all of them I agreed with aside from a few subjects that were clearly more related to me having to Google how to fix my electronics. Facebook seemed to be all over the place with the things they kept track of in terms of my interest. They seemed to have a million different key words to use when assigning ads to my account; some of them were related to things I actually was interested, but the rest were just segments of things that could only be related to something as insignificant as a post that I liked once three years ago. The vast amount of information that these two companies have about me is sickening, yet not surprising. In the digital society, I spend most of my time between these two websites. Google is my go to when I need to know or find anything and everything and Facebook is where I interact with my friends and family. These two cites should have all this information on me simply because I spent years developing these portfolios myself. The problem I face with it is the fact that this information that is supposed to be private is shared with advertisers. I look at it as the same as a doctor selling your personal medical records with pharmaceutical companies so they can sell us medication. It’s morally wrong in my opinion because Google and Facebook have developed into such a private industry when you look at how they are used; yet none of the information is private anymore now that it is being sold to the highest bidder. This new information actually is making me think that I need to be more careful about what I put out into the World Wide Web. While I don’t believe I have ever been fooled into buying anything from one of these advertisements, an article from the New York Times that was one of required reading states that 97% of internet users interact with just one of these online ad companies in any given month (Singer, 2012). That astonishes me and makes me think that while I do not feel that I am giving out any information that could be dangerous in the wrong hands, I feel as if I should tone it down and play it safe after this exploration.

Singer, N. (2012, November 17). Your Online Attention, Bought in an Instant. Your Online Attention Bought in an Instant by Advertisers. Retrieved December 10, 2013, from http://www.nytimes.com/2012/11/18/technology/your-online-attention-bought-in-an-instant-by-advertisers.html?pagewanted=all&_r=0

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.

Online Assignment 4-5_Rosenberg

            So I should first start by saying that I had no idea I could access that much information on Facebook about myself. I figured that the site would have a lot of my info, but the fact that it is all available so easily is pretty neat (and I guess the way it should be). Downloading all of my history from the site was actually somewhat nostalgic—scrolling through so many past events and points in my life that have been documented on Facebook is actually kind of cool.  That is one of the main things I have realized Facebook will be good for in years to come. I don’t think a lot of our generation realizes it, but it is an amazing archive. Imagine showing your kids your own Facebook some day? Tracking back to when you were their age—assuming the site is still up and running and hasn’t fallen to a new competitor. The information that Facebook had on me was pretty predictable. Everything from all of my absurd page likes in 2009, to my most recent link shares and uploaded photos. I don’t see why they would not have a record of all of that information. I would imagine most large websites keep archives of all their information—companies like Amazon probably document purchases, so I can see why Facebook documents its users. I guess the one aspect that represents Web 2.0 in all of its glory is Facebook’s ability to keep track of all of my possible ad pages. The site looks at all of my interests and likes and correlates them to possible advertisements. This is crucial for Facebook’s hunt to earn capital, so I understand why they must do it. Web 2.0 relies on user-generated content, so in a lot of ways the only way to make money for these social networking sites is through advertisements. While we are uncomfortable with the idea that we are targeted by advertisers based on our interests and likes, unfortunately that is the way it has to be. Web 2.0 is definitely a give-take relationship—because we have access to so much free content, companies must make revenue some way.

            Google was a bit of a different story. While Google is a huge search engine and has the ability to collect loads of data on its users and their searches, it seemed apparent to me that the information recorded on me was not nearly as vast as that of Facebook’s. I recently created a “Google Plus” account, and I really do not have much content on it—other than the nine friends I will video chat with. Because of this I do not spend a whole lot of time on the account. The new model Google went with in creating that profile kind of seems to mirror Facebook a bit, and because of that I think it might be in the shadow of F.B for a while.

            The information recorded on me I think goes to show that I am pretty active in this information age of the digital society. Most of my likes and interests are very public, and because of this your average user (and advertiser) probably has a basic idea of what I like and am most likely to like. The idea does not really bother me at the moment. I understand the layout of Web 2.0 and kind of appreciate the model.

Online Assignment 4&5_CHO

Growing up in the digital age, most people have heard of the capabilities that some companies have to keep track and record your data usage. I have been taught to be weary of my digital footprint since I was a kid. I remember my middle school would conduct online awareness meetings in conjunction with the police in the grand old days of Myspace to teach us that everything we post or put up online is there forever and recorded. I can only say that seeing for myself firsthand of the records Facebook and google keep on me is an eye opening experience. I was not aware of the extent to which my web surfing and social network activity has been recorded. Google and Facebook have very different data recording techniques which are interesting.

                Google has an interesting perspective on who I am from a digital perspective because almost all my web surfing starts at the google search platform. With this ability to observe my search history as well as my web surfing tendencies google has ample amounts of data to make fairly personal inferences on who I am in real life. The ad settings page of google produced some interesting and sometimes entertaining inferences on me. Google inferred I was a male which is accurate and makes me think what information they base this assumption on. I was placed in the twenty five to thirty four age bracket. This is almost accurate, being nineteen years old; I am in the age bracket just under this one. Google made the inference that I speak English as well as Russian. I found this assumption particularly amusing because what data led to this information? I speak English and Korean, not Russian, and to the best of my memory I do not browse or search Russian news frequently. The interests category depicts me accurately and I can clearly see the connection between my search tendencies and determining my “interests”. The list contains 39 specific interests which for the most part I am interested in. I thought this would be useful to advertisers as potential specialized advertisements directed to me and my specific interests. The data that google has accumulated on me have no direct effect on me directly because there is not much use of this data beyond advertising; however, the general issue of online privacy is a worrisome issue especially going into the future.

                Facebook maintained an elaborate database containing all of my pictures and general activity on the social networking site. This was less shocking to me because I was always aware of Facebook’s data compiling methods. Again it becomes more real seeing all the data records of you in front of your eyes. Ultimately being able to observe what large corporations do with your personal information makes me think twice before posting or commenting and my overall online activity.

Online Assignment 4&5_Bratton

In looking at the data that Facebook and Google have about me, I realized that these mega companies have highly strategic ways of connecting with me and attempting to advertise to me. They each put serious effort into compiling information about me and they actively use this information to connect with me.

I already knew that my Facebook use is rather extensive since I check it at least once a day and I have had a Facebook for a long time. However, I did not know that Facebook saved all of this usage to try and create a profile for me, outside of the profile that I create for myself. In some sense, it troubles me that I was unaware that the website had the capability but on the other hand, I am not surprised that the company goes out of its way to tailor advertisements and collect this information. It was also interesting to see that the suggested advertisements were based off of the interests I had expressed when I first set up my Facebook account. Now, these interests are outdated. This clearly has implications on the nature of the ads being outdated as well, for example, the film “Elizabethtown” from the 2000s.

Before doing this assignment, I did not know that Google collected this much information about me. I have never made an effort to enter much information into my Google account. Given this fact, seeing their assumptions about my interest was very surprising, especially since their assumptions were so accurate. Without me ever designating it, Google guessed that my favorite music is country music, that I am interested in Arts & Entertainment, and Colleges & Universities. Google clearly knows me more accurately, despite the fact that I use Facebook much more frequently. This must mean that their algorithm for collecting information based off of my searches of the internet is must more effective that Facebook’s method of collecting information based on what interests I have designated in the past.

After seeing all of the information that these two companies I realize that the digital media society is in fact a new paradigm. Companies can collect and save information and use it for good or bad and consumer’s trust of these companies, including my own, is often taken for granted. Especially with the current problem of the National Security Agency’s ability to request this information about Americans, I now know that these implications must be considered. Under the first Amendment, Americans have the right to freedom of association. If the government can request the information about your associations and prosecute you for it, this freedom is taken away. I think that in the near future there will be some major reforms of the government’s ability to collect this information that Facebook and Google collect.