Online Intelligence

Google, Bing, Yahoo! And other search engines offer search as a free service on the Web, because searches provide the marketing information that advertisers have sought like the conquistadores sought El Dorado — a way to show large numbers of individuals advertisements that each person might actually be interested in. Search is both a public good — something useful to everybody, but that individuals lack sufficient incentive to create for themselves — and a way to amass significant private wealth by selling a valuable commodity. In Web search, the valuable commodity is the searchers’ attention. Search engines sell sponsored links that appear on the top or side of the page of links displayed in response to a search query. Whenever someone clicks on a sponsored link, a small amount of money goes to the search engine provider. Those clicks add up to billions of dollars each year. (p. 85)

Your digital footprint is comprised of information such as particular links you click on when using a search engine, groups you join, online shopping preferences, and reacting to someone else’s social media post. How do you know what footprints you’ve left? Try these steps:

1. Search your name on a variety of different search engines. Search text, images, and video. If anything comes up that you would prefer not be attached to your name, take steps to remove it from the site it happens to be on. Don’t hesitate to contact a webmaster if you need something taken off a particular site but have no way to do it.
2. Clean up accounts! You may have an old account somewhere that you haven’t accessed since Jr. High that needs to be deleted. If you have accounts you plan to “deactivate,” clean out all the photos and information before deactivating.
3. Check the privacy settings on your active accounts. Make a habit of going through your active accounts each year and clean them up. Anything you want to keep can be backed up on your hard drive without leaving it out and available within the app. Make sure you know what you are sharing and with whom you are sharing it. All social media apps’ privacy settings require attention!
4. Unsubscribe from any mailing lists that you don’t really need.
5. Use a secondary email account for sites you sign up on that may send marketing.
6. Check any e-commerce or retail sites and delete your account if you no longer use them.
7. Use a more private web browser and search engine. DuckDuckGo doesn’t log any personally identifiable information, doesn’t use cookies to identify you, and it discards user agents and IP addresses from its server logs. StartPage runs a Google search for you but does not pass your information on to Google. Most major browsers have a private, or incognito mode, but note this still tracks your IP address (see https://www.computerhope.com/issues/ch001378.htm for more information).
8. Always remember that digital information doesn’t really go away, so think very carefully before you post! If you want to test how long web information remains available, search for a URL (like http://okstate.edu) on the Wayback Machine Internet Archive (http://archive.org).

There are serious privacy-related issues such as identity theft, surveillance, and behavioral data mining associated with web and social media activities, but there are great affordances for those who bring knowledge and skill to their engagement in digital culture. The wealth of outstanding information available, engagement in personal and professional communities, and the opportunity to collaboratively create with diverse, global citizens cannot be ignored. Rheingold explains, “Every PC as well as smart phone is a printing press, broadcasting station, political organizing tool, and site for growing a community or marketplace. Knowledge, power, advantage, companionship, and influence lie with those who know how to participate, rather than those who just passively consume culture” (p. 249).

Thus, given the opportunity, people typically revert to situations where they can be in homogeneous environments. They look for “safe spaces” and “culture fit.” And systems that are “personalized” are highly desirable. Most people aren’t looking to self-segregate, but they do it anyway. And, increasingly, the technologies and tools around us allow us to self-segregate with ease. Is your uncle annoying you with his political rants? Mute him. Tired of getting ads for irrelevant products? Reveal your preferences. Want your search engine to remember the things that matter to you? Let it capture data.Want to watch a TV show that appeals to your senses? Here are some recommendations. (n.p.)