Should government organizations and private companies be allowed to track our online behaviors and use the data they collect about use? What are the implications of the collection and use of personal data when it comes to particular groups in society?
DIRECTIONS:
Pick one particular group to be your imagined audience. Think about why that particular group should care about the issue of online privacy--what do they have at stake? In a blog post of approximately 350-400 words, you will construct an argument based on the specific rhetorical situation you have constructed (see handout). In your argument you must use evidence from at least 3 sources (two may come from the articles we've read together, but one must come from your own research). Remember to use parenthetical citations.
Based on the rhetorical situation, make careful decisions
about the following as you craft your argument:
* Point of view: Why would your audience need to care about an issue related to online privacy? What, according to your opinion, do they have at stake? What do you want this audience to think/understand/believe/do? Make sure your claim on the issue fits the perspective of the audience.
* Structure: How will you begin? How will you organize main points? How will you end? Use the structures on the last page of your toolbox for ideas, or use some of the editorials we read for ideas.
* Examples & evidence: What kind of evidence and examples would your particular audience find convincing and compelling?
* Tone & language use: Craft your words, your metaphors, your tone for the particular audience. Again think about what they would respond to.
* Appeals: As you present your main points, examples, and evidence, what appeals would work? What kind of logical reasons and examples would resonate with this audience? As you craft your language or use imagery or anecdotes, what emotion would you go for? How would you establish a sense of trust or credibility?
* Strategies: Look back at the toolbox and remind yourself of the strategies that are at your disposal: rhetorical questions, anecdotes, allusions, imagery, figurative language, irony, etc. Use what will work with your audience.
REMEMBER TO SAVE YOUR WORK TO A GOOGLE DOC BEFORE YOU POST IT--JUST TO BE SAFE!!!
If you are looking for sources besides articles, here is an interesting podcast and TED Talk I've found:
Podcast:
http://www.wnyc.org/story/propublica-facebook-algorithms-bias-privacy/
TED Talk:
It's 6:32 my bus pulls up to my stop I climb on like always and take a seat. I look down at my phone and notice a little symbol in the top right hand corner of the screen, intrigued I investigate further. I learned that morning that my phone based on the time of day and the location that it near exactly where I was going and even the exact route I was going to take. Now at first this frightened me, I was shocked that the phone company would have such knowledge. But then I thought about it, I thought of how often that sign must have been there and I hadn’t even taken the time to see what it actually did. Now people all over are complaining about how companies shouldn’t be allowed to track what they do and advertising companies shouldn’t use this to their advantage.I say why not? For example if I go home and look up dog toys and browse through a online store that has a cookies on it the company that owns that cookie now knows that I am looking for a dog toy. Now there are those who say there is no reason for companies to be tracking us and that it has gotten out of control but there is a method to the internets madness. Whenever we go on the internet the famous saying is that the world is at our fingertips, which means that whatever information I want I can get and other than the cost of the wi-fi route is generally free. Now if you are educated at all you know that the world runs on money, then how can all these websites run and allow user access for free? The answer is that they are being paid by advertising companies to see what you are interested in. It at the most basic level is an exchange. You get the world at your fingertips, they get to see what in that world you are looking at. Another reason that these companies have every right to track what you are doing is that you are supplying the information. Now take social media for example, you log on most of the time free of charge and can talk with any other user. Facebook uses many, and I mean many cookies. Now you might be saying well I don’t use facebook I use twitter, instagram, snapchat or one of the other hundreds forms of social media well turns out you’re out of luck too most social media use at least 100 cookies. Now yes that may sound a little extreme but remember you get a social media with 1.71 billion people on it for free. Now we say that this is a violation of our privacy, but is it? When I look up dog toys is that an invasion of my privacy for companies to say I’m looking for a dog toy? The answer, no not really. Sure there may be more sensitive cases but really if you are looking it up on the internet that information is public. So instead of blaming the companies maybe we should take a little responsibility. We should learn to be observant and have a little common sense, if you don’t want companies to know something about you than don’t post on twitter how you’re trying to lose weight or search for ways of doing it quicker. So really the solution to online tracking is to be self-aware realize when the little location symbol shows up on your phone, or when you’re uploading all your personal information to your social media.
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ReplyDeleteDo you ever think to yourself as an advertiser, “Are these ads going too far?” It can’t be-- can it? As an advertiser you are just trying to make money by creating the most relevant ads for each consumer. Put yourself in the shoes of a consumer. What ads would you find offensive to you? What types of tracking do you think invades the privacy of the consumer? In many cases even with this advanced tracking, how do you know when the ads you are getting are truly accurate?
ReplyDeleteMany ads these days can be irrelevant and inaccurate ads can be offensive to the consumer. Imagine you are a parent and your son is self-conscious about having a brain disorder and does research on a regular basis, causing related ads to pop up. And as a parent, you think to yourself how irritating it is that an advertiser would put an ad for a medical condition on a webpage and make your son feel self-conscious about himself. Things like ads on medical conditions should not exist for this reason. The reason for these types of ads is because most ad companies use the recency and frequency of internet searches to determine which ads to show the consumer said Jack Jia, the CEO of the advertising company, Baynote. The advertising industry says that they will work on creating ads that are more accurate by using more tracking technologies. But this introduces a bigger problem, the invasion of privacy.
Advanced tracking like beacons can track more information than the advertisers should know. There is no reason for an advertiser to be able to track your webcam, keyboard movement, and website activity. These beacons are just creepy and scary to think about for consumers. How a person looks through their webcam should not determine which ads they are shown. The idea of flash cookies also scares people. Why do advertisers need to re-install cookies that have already been deleted? If the consumer made the conscious decision to avoid tracking, why track them against their will?
Advertisers have made it nearly impossible to avoid tracking. Some may argue that it is possible and people have done it before. People like Kevin Roose have accomplished this by using a highly advanced VPNs, using a special web browser, putting aluminum foil around his phone (to prevent phone from communicating from cell phone towers), and wearing a special hat so that security cameras could not track his face. Obviously, this man went completely out of his way just so no advertisers could track him. At this point in time there are little ways for people to avoid advertiser tracking while still living life somewhat normally.
Overall, advertisers should limit their internet tracking. The idea of relevant ads popping up can be really convenient for the consumer. Ideally, consumers should have a way to manually restrict tracking from certain companies or websites. Also things like medical ads should not exist because they are just too personal. This method will allow consumers to get rid of ads that they feel are irrelevant, offensive, or uses technology that invades their privacy. I know that advertisers main goal is not to invade the privacy of their customers, but that is what they end up doing. Advertiser mainly just need to work together with consumers and make sure that they feel safe.
Blog Response~Alyssa Hoogs
ReplyDeleteFor your child’s birthday, you got him a new Vtech toy to play with and learn from. You set up an account and put your address in. The next week a hacker breaks into the database for the Vtech toys, and can find out your child’s name, address, and other information. Whatever you or your child type into a comment section, or move your mouse around the page, beacon trackers can see what you typed/where you were on the page. Also whenever you sign up for an account or search something, cookies can track you and compile data about what you search and your email, address, and other personal items. For many parents, this can be scary for their children and families privacy.
In an article addressing children's privacy, “At Schools and At Home”, a hacker is able to get into a database of a children's toy company, Vtech. He easily gets past the security of a tablet toy devise to help child learn, and is able to access their personal information. He is easily able to get information on where the children live, how old they are, what the children's learning ability is and other information. Also in another article, “Disney’s New ‘MyMagic’ Wristbands”, this one about their new wristbands. These wristbands are convenient, however they come with a draw back. Wherever you go, scanners are always tracking your movements. Disney has ride short range scanners, that can track you from ride to ride, and over all through the park they have long range scanners that cover the entire park. A good thing, that is important for parents, is that if your child gets lost, and your child has the MyMagic wristband, you could go to the staff and find them. Wherever they are at in the park, using the long and short distance scanners you could find them. They can also open your hotel room doors, are hard to lose, make you identifiable for the Disney characters to know you by name, and give you sales on particular items. However there are serious disadvantages to having all of this data compiled about you for Disney. Although Disney is a large company, and should have good security, it also makes itself a larger target for hackers. The hackers could easily kidnap your child if they hacked into the system by finding where they are and also do many bad things with the information they collect. In the article “The Illusion of Online Privacy”, many sites like facebook and google track your online activity, and these large companies sell the data they collect to third party companies, data brokers. These companies also give your information over to the government. If major companies and sites are hacked, which is entirely possible, all the information on your searches is available. Many of these searches can be used to find out aspects of your personal life, like if you search baby needs, then google will know that you have had a child. Your family could be stalked over the years by following your internet searches.
Although most tracking is bad some can be good, but mostly the tracking for a good cause is tracking adults. I believe that children should not be tracked. Children’s tracking can have a few advantages, like finding lost children in Disney, or supervision of their internet practices, but mostly it puts their privacy and sometimes life at risk when a hacker and/or criminal can find information about them. There should be more governmental policies protecting children from the danger on data collection and distribution. Especially now that teens are more tech savvy than most adults, with their iphones and data, there should be more limitations.
McCarty--test post
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ReplyDeleteYou and your family not may, but ARE being tracked. Tracking has become a huge problem and the last few years and some are getting really annoyed and upset while others aren’t even phased by it. Whenever you search something online it is compiled into a complex profile about you and you will be targeted with ads based on what you search most times without your consent. Companies buy and sell your profiles for one tenth of a penny; talk about being worthless! You can even take tests online to show how much you are worth based on the information provided and believe me, you aren’t worth as much as you think! Everything you have ever put into the computer or searched, someone has all that information. It is scary that a kid wouldn’t know anything about tracking yet someone knows all about them just based off the tiniest bit of information kind of like Ashley Hayes-Beaty. “The code knows that her favorite movies include… It knows she browses entertainment news and likes to take quizzes.’Well, I like to think I have some mystery left to me, but apparently not! (Ms. Hayes-Beaty)’(Julia Angwin)”VTech toys, every kid knows them and every kid loves them but watch out! These little toys maybe not be as safe as you all think, there might actually be someone collecting all the data from that toy on the other side. “ Last month, a hacker stole personal information and photos of more than six million children after breaking into the computer records of a educational toy company, VTech. (NPR STAFF)”
ReplyDeleteTracking/ watching people needs to stop especially for the sake of the children. They go on the internet to say just play a game and a company already has all the information of the kid. It’s like having a criminal record without the crime, someone is always watching what you do, paying attention to what you search, and tracking where you go. I can understand the government watching for the safety of the country but why do outside companies have to? I’m not asking for a way to opt out of all data collection but something like the Do Not Track Program would be nice. For example, whenever I’m searching for something online of playing an app on my phone I’m always getting ads for shoes that I’ve recently searched for and it gets irritating. As for the VTech toys, why does it even need all the child’s information to play a game or play with a toy camera? An easy solution would be just to put in false information that way you are free from the problem. The Children’s Online Privacy Protection Act is the perfect all around solution to end the data collection of children troubles. “COPPA is complex, but it contains three fundamental concepts. First, before an operator of a website may collect personal information from a child under the age of 13, it must obtain the verified consent of the child's parent. (Tyler Newby)”
Parents Beware of Online Tracking
ReplyDeleteYour child is being watched, and you have no idea. Somewhere, a predator may have exact details about your child, such as their name, their address, and many more precise pieces of information, making them a target. Millions of kids all around the globe are exposed to tracking, and lots of personal data can be spread through the web. This information may follow your child around like an eerie shadow, and create dangerous situations.
Imagine going to the toy store and buying your child a toy. This may seem like a relatively normal situation, one you may not think much about at all. The thing you may not realize is that with the purchase and gifting of this toy, you may be subjecting your child to being tracked by whoever has enough determination and wits to get a hold of all the information stored on the device. This information could include your child's name, address, age, even photos of your child, which if held in the wrong hands, could end in tragedy.
Although this situation may seem hypothetical, one very similar to that is all too real. VTech, a popular children's toy company, experienced a consequential hacking of a substantial six million children. The data breech leaked not only all of the pictures of the children stored on each device, but also very sensitive information such as the children's names and other personal information. Would you want this information about your child to be accessible to random hackers?
The tracking of kids doesn't stop at just toys, because now kids can even be tracked while in school. More than half of classroom computers in the U.S are Chromebooks, which use Google Apps for Education. Al of these aps include cookies-devices tagged on websites that create a personal profile for every person filled with information about the user. These cookies can track your child across the web, and watch their every move, without them or you even knowing it. Eric Schneiderman, a New York Attorney General, was speaking about how dangerous online tracking for children is.“We used to worry about our children wandering into bad neighborhoods, now our children live online,” Schneiderman said in a press conference. “We have to deal with this the same way we deal with street crime.”