Personal Information & Privacy in the Information Age
Author: Rick Phelan
Published: 06.30.15
The Internet is constantly evolving and there are many powerful and wonderful opportunities afforded through it. Working with children and adolescents, it is wise to cultivate an understanding of how the Internet operates and safe practices. Information about the world wide network helps demystify operation dynamics and supports conversations on safety. Common areas of discussion about Internet safe practices include the following points:
- Information on the Internet needs to be read critically
- Electronic communication should be civil and respectful
- Bullying is never acceptable behavior and can have serious consequences
- Postings through social media, email, and texts cannot be retracted
- Information taken from the Internet requires citation and/or permission
- Users need to demonstrate care and discretion when sharing personal information
The last point, “users need to demonstrate care and discretion when sharing personal information,” has deeper elements that parents and teachers should be aware of. This blog post examines information security and privacy from the standpoint of both operations and safe practices.
In the past we’ve told children and adolescents to not share specific personal information such as home addresses, credit card numbers and social security numbers. This is still true. It’s also important to be aware that many ‘free’ Internet services are continuously gathering personal information about us. Consumer organizations encourage us to understand that some of this information may be used now or in the future in ways that we might not approve of. Two Internet companies that regularly collect information about their users are Google and Facebook.
Google
Using a Google search engine, users identify their interests, pursuits and location through search terms and results they select. This data is collected and stored as part of an individual’s search history profile by Google. When an individual makes a new Google search, their search history is accessed and new results are returned based on personal user profiles. Google states that user histories are used to provide “tailored content.” This means results and advertising are filtered to be most relevant to us. We trust Google and it’s employees to use information about us in ethical ways defined in their privacy policies now and in the future.
Facebook
In a similar way, Facebook users login to their accounts and provide many different personal information streams to the company. User ages, location, interests and education are parts of one stream. A second set of information is collected when users click on Facebook “Like” buttons. Facebook combines “Like” results with our personal profiles to ‘push’ us advertising and other services we might be interested in. Another area of data collection that has caused recent controversy is Facebook’s’ facial recognition algorithms. Users and friends upload pictures and tag specific individuals with names. The tagging of pictures by individuals and friends in Facebook refines and adjusts the facial recognition programs such that their software can automatically recognize individuals and tag pictures with accurate identities. Consumer groups express concern that Facebook will some time in the future start passing their face recognition information data to others without our knowledge or permission. In doing this, businesses could use cameras to recognize individuals and combine it with other information (eg. name, address, age, education, interests, banking information) to market products, services or use in other ways. It’s important to note that Facebook’s current data policies don’t specifically reference this area of information.
Data Sharing Between Companies
Some third third-party apps, websites and other services are integrated with Facebook and/or Google. When an individual initiates entry into the service, rather than setting up a new user account an option of using a Facebook or Google login can be offered. It’s important to recognize that when you choose to use a Facebook or Google login, you can be authorizing the new service to obtain access to information about you including what information you search for, where you live and what you post and share. They can access your age range, your country, language and your list of friends. Information collected by these apps, websites or integrated services is subject to their own terms and policies. Consumer organizations urge caution in this area because the trust you’ve extended to Facebook and Google is being further extended to the new company and its employees.
More Information:
The Computer Will (Literally) See You Now
Electronic Privacy Information Center on Digital Privacy- YouTube Video
Blog: Technology for Learners
