# Nov 22 Tue - Privacy

- **How concerned should we be about our privacy online? Is there anything we can do to protect it?**

To begin, my entire life, I thought social media applications like Instagram and Facebook listened to me. I remember my cousin once pointed out how ads related to our conversations would appear in her feed all of the time. The reading "Facebook isn't secretly listening to your conversations, but the truth is much more disturbing" pointed out how it has been a conspiracy theory that our phones listen to our conversations (Haridy, 2019). It is interesting to finally read an article that openly mentions this theory of Facebook, listening to our conversations, and the reality of what is happening. The tests they made clearly revealed how our phones don't necessarily listen to our conversations but have other methods to spy on our interests. This leaves the question: how much privacy do we really have online?

Everything we do on social media and online is generally being tracked for different purposes. And it is scary that we might be exposed to danger because our every move is being tracked online. When I first used *Spokeo* to search for my mom, I found private, accurate information about the location of my aunt's place here in the United States. This is what mainly made me question how much safety we really have in today's world if this information is accessible to anyone out there. However, it is nice to see how there are ways in which we can prevent our location information from leaking or being accessible to other people online. For instance, downloading *Webproxy* could work to prevent people's IP from leaking, which is something I will share with my mom to help with the safety and privacy of her information.


Moreover, I thought it was definitely interesting to see how we can manipulate the number of targeted ads we see online. Firstly, noticing how the listed ads were related to my recent searches indicates how my online behavior is being tracked for marketing purposes. Leaving evidence of what was mentioned in the reading, almost everything done on a phone or computer is being carefully analyzed, collected, saved, and sold to organizations without being aware of it (Kernighan, 2017). As was also mentioned, this all starts with the web search. I have been searching for *Wayfair* information since I have been interested in working for this company. It was surprising to see that Wayfair is now one of the firms targeting me with their ads because of my recent search history.


In addition, it is evident how everything we do online is tracked and saved. In the images below, where I searched for my mom’s name and my own, I saw everything involving our activities, interests, and what we are and have been dedicated to doing.


Lastly, it is valid to mention that I was not aware that I could control the number of ads I see online, and if I consider content to be sensitive, there are ways to turn off this opinion and not view them daily. However, in terms of our information being tracked, platforms like *Webproxy* and ad blockers can be installed to protect our privacy. Still, we live in a world where companies will still find ways to track, collect, and analyze our information for marketing purposes. Therefore, it is unknown how much private information we can keep from being exposed.