Why Spy...

How worried am I about privacy? Depends on how I'm feeling I guess.  I go the total roundabout way to being concerned.  I know I don't like people tracking me.  I have some add-ons (Collusion) for Chrome that I use to see what's going on (and block known trackers).  Here's what I saw yesterday when I started this post.

I know when I'm online I'm connected, I know advertisers use this to collect data, I am slightly worried about how else that information gets used, but my biggest concern is data collection for advertising, because regardless of my deliberate actions I am helping someone make money by just looking around online.  I am very happy that the internet is relatively accessible and cheap (especially here in Cambodia for me). So if advertising is supplementing that, right on, I just don't want them to gather data about me, and sell it, especially since I purchase so many things online.

I read this book in January and found it incredibly interesting.

 Some rights reserved by screenpunk

The whole idea that nothing is private, is astounding (and mostly true).  But how much should we care about it.  The scariest thing for me in this book was the idea that you could only have one true identity online.  Right now I have three different profiles open on my chrome browser, work, personal, professional.  So I go to different websites based on who "I" am. That way, I'm using my data the way I want.

Which is what I tell my students... everything online can be made public (basically, unless you're on the deep internet, or have crazy settings, then why be social). So, use that public aspect to highlight your best self. I don't tell them about multiple profiles, but they know I have different profiles because they see my different browsers. I want them to know about privacy, not just facebook security settings and realize people want this data.  People want to see what people are buying and looking at.  Collusion (which I show them) connects all the little dots, so we can see where information is going, and as long as we're happy with our data going places, then right on.  Just be aware, and make decisions based on what you know. 

I guess I think privacy (or openness) should work both ways, I should know who has access to my data if they are going to take my data.