"Just as the internet has opened up the world for each of us, it has also opened up each and every one of us to the world. And increasingly, the price that we're being asked to pay for this connectedness, is our privacy. With every click of the mouse, every touch of the screen, we are like Hansel and Gretel- leaving breadcrumbs, or personal information, everywhere we travel through the digital woods."
-Gary Kovacs: Tracking the trackers
After discussing issues of online privacy this week, I saw this Ted Talks video and started watching. This Ted Talk is all about the information that is being collected about you as you surf the web. Before watching this video, I had no idea to what scale this was being done, or for what reason. After I watched this, for lack of a more fitting phrase, I was freaked out. I feel like there is a crowd of people following me (or according to Kovacs- stalking me?) wherever I go online.
“I am being stalked across the Web. And why is this happening? Pretty simple: It's huge business.”-Gary Kovacs.
What could this mean for our students? According to this Ted Talk, the example of a nine-year old girl was used, who web browsed something close to 4 sites and ended up having near 25 follow her. This is a process that could take less than a minute- easily!
Taking a step back, the person who did this Ted Talk works for Mozilla (Firefox) and potentially wants you to install his software to "track the trackers". Just as he commented on why trackers are tracking people across the web, having you add his company's software significantly contributes to their business. I think referring to the web analytics tools to follow user behavior as "online stalkers" is a strong term, but it isn't a comfortable thing either, and I think it's because it's this thing that is mostly unknown. And there is such little regulation regarding it in our country. So for me it's something to keep thinking about and to be mindful of.
The take home message for me after watching this video is that internet history is a permanent thing, and that students need practice in being safe students of the web. I think schools have a responsibility to teach ways to be safe online. What's so interesting is that those ways to be safe online are changing, and this Ted Talks video was a reminder of how quickly the web can change and how proactive users need to be about being safe on the web.
You make an excellent point about needing to teach students the importance of being safe online. I think back to my nephew, when he was just three years old. He could turn on the computer and pull up an internet site which had a bunch of kid games that he liked to play. Did I mention he did this when he was three!
ReplyDeleteOur students will have grown up with so much more technology than we did. It is important that they are informed about how to be safe and keep their information private, starting at a young age.