Reflection #2: Big Data & Privacy
As I write this, I am sitting in my parent’s house surrounded by Amazon Echos. My dad just bought a whole set for the house: one for the kitchen, one for the living room, and one for the basement. I can’t help but think of Hill & Mattu’s TED Talk in which they discussed how Alexa was particularly chatty; “it contacted its servers every three minutes, regardless of whether you were using it or not” (2018). Yikes! My parents also have a Vizio smart tv, so they are really pushing privacy to the back burner. It surprised me that Vizio paid such a large settlement to the government (2.2 million, to be exact) and I never heard about it on social media (Hill & Mattu, 2018). Part of me wonders how much people really care if their privacy is being breached… as long as no one is illegally using their credit card or their SSN to create a fake identity, what does it matter? People are willing to pay the price of subtle manipulation for their curated algorithms.
Speaking of the Instagram For-You page, since watching and reading the material for this week, I’ve become more skeptical of the content it’s suggesting to me. I’ve started to consider, how are these advertisements praying on my insecurities? As Wallace (2014) mentioned, they very well could be. A few months ago, I experienced death in my family and was going through a depressive episode. In searching various mindfulness methods and therapeutic medications, I noticed my For-You page start to become saturated with people also experiencing deep sadness. I also started to see an influx of inspirational quotes pop up and the occasional ad for CBD. I don’t think I would have reflected and recognized this had I not taken CS 340. It’s definitely a little jarring.
Hill, K. & Mattu, S. (2018, April). What your smart devices know (and share) about you [Video] https://www.ted.com/talks/kashmir_hill_and_surya_mattu_what_your_smart_devices_know_and_share_about_you
Wallace, M. (Director). (2014, September). The ethics of collecting data [Video] https://www.ted.com/talks/marie_wallace_the_ethics_of_collecting_data
