As I watched the “Do Not Track” videos that were mainly about privacy, it opened my eyes to things I thought were normal, but realized as I was living my normal daily life and routine, it was like I was being tracked by a spy.
Firstly, I watched “The Spy in My Pocket” video that mainly explained how my phone is technically a spy that goes everywhere with me as I go through my daily activities. This video opened my eyes on the fact that even the little things I do such as turning on the flashlight, activates something in the phone that serves as a tracker. Additionally, I realized that everywhere I go there is a tracker that is reflected in the suggestions I receive and how the phone realizes my location and starts suggesting things accordingly. The smart phone in my pocket is spying on us all the time and there is not such thing as privacy when you own a smartphone that tracks every move and step taken.
Secondly, I watched “The Daily Me” video that mainly explained how suggestions and the news that come on my feed is mainly related to the friends I have on facebook and something called cookies which records my interest based on what I open. In the video, they explained how even the news feed that comes up on my facebook page is related to the friends I have, their interests and previous articles I have read. In the video, it has been elaborated that when we like a certain page on facebook, it gives us further suggestions of other pages that I may like, and this is because of a tracker that knows the things I like and other things in common that may interest me. There is a thing called Collaborative Filtering, which is a method of making automatic predictions about the interests of a user by collecting preferences from many users. This method is adapted by many social platforms that most people use. A good example they gave to summarize that, was in the time of the elections where news feeds were filtered for conservatives and progressives on what should be hidden from their feed.
Finally, I watched “Morning Rituals” video of Do Not Track that mainly explained how my habits and things I’m used to do are tracked by some people. The video asked me where do I get my news, my reply was facebook, and then I was informed that each time I decide to open facebook there is 1 tracker. Additionally, it asked me what website do I open when I’m bored, my reply was Instagram, and it also said that there are 2 trackers whenever I open Instagram. The video also showed me a link of this pattern of mine as if it was a tracker who connects the dots with every move I make in order to come up with my life pattern just to be able to get to me with news, interests and things for me to buy. This process is done by something called cookies that is available on every computer and smart phone which tracks every move I make on the internet and social media. I realized that social media is the place industries, companies and restaurants track people to be able to get them to buy their products or to promote for them.
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