This prompt made me think back to an episode of Parks and Recreation that aired in 2014 and was actually set in the “future” of 2017. In one scene, the characters are sent gift boxes via drone filled with items personalized to their taste. It comes to their knowledge that the company that controls their phone and Internet access has been data mining and selling the information they gather to other companies for selling purposes.
Being in the year 2017 now, it seems we are not too far from this scene becoming a reality. We are familiar with the idea of cookies and algorithms being used to consume information about us and feed it back to us in the form of personalized ads—but what is next? According to Facebook, communication between our brains and social platforms is not too far away. A post in the Economy Times details how Facebook’s Research and Development team are in the midst of developing software that will be able to effectively read users’ minds, allowing them to type without a keyboard and click without a mouse.
Image credit: Your Stylish Life
This kind of seamlessness between brain, device, and message made me think of the article that was attached in our blog post prompt. Within that article, the author talked of Internet access becoming “like electricity”, flowing invisibly and constantly. If Facebook can actually implement this technology, then our connection to social networks and smartphones will be more present and attaching than ever before. Our amount of privacy online would decrease even further since the power of the media would not only be in our hands, but in our heads.
With this issue of privacy taking on new heights, the government has become deeply invested. As privacy is such a divisive issue, the grounds for creating rules has become “a weird gray area” according to ACLU legislative counsel Neema Singh Giuliani. Considering technology’s supreme progression, it’s hard to imagine it will be in that gray area for long.
Questions:
- Would you appreciate a company like Amazon data mining to send you personalized gifts or would you feel violated by the invasion of privacy?
- If Facebook figures out the technology to track brain activity, would you continue to use the site? Why or why not?
Very interesting and informative blog post. Yeah, I feel like our privacy is something uncertain, grey…like it’s hard to explain what exactly is going on. However, in future it will change, and we will be “out there”.
Answering your first question I would say that it depends on what type of gifts I will be receiving. For example, (let’s say) I just found out that I am pregnant and Amazon is already sending me some toys and clothes for a baby. That would be weird! Not sure how I will react on that. Or let’s say I just broke up with my boyfriend and Amazon is sending me some psychological books like “How do find a right man” or ” How to deal with loneliness”. That would violate my privacy for sure.
1. I like the convenience of the internet knowing what I want and when I want it, it’s a step closer to having AI. I don’t necessarily think it’s THAT intrusive, because I use the internet as tool for my convenience, why would it be so odd that it helps me buy things I would anyway?
2. Again, I don’t necessarily find it that intrusive because I have control of what I am viewing on Facebook. Would it be the worst thing if Facebook was personalizing content that fit my intelligence/mental capacity, no not necessarily. Is it weird and do I want it? Absolutely it’s weird, and I do not want that.
We are numb to the idea of our privacy being invaded online because it does not seem invasive like the term would describe it. Although I would agree that there are certain types of intrusions that would make me feel uncomfortable. This isn’t an online example but when I go to a cosmetics store and buy something, sometimes the cashier would look at my face and say something like “Here’s a sample product for you. It helps with oily skin” then that makes me feel confused like do I take it as a good thing that a product could be helpful or a bad thing because she dissed my skin. If technology can invade my brain activity without doing things like doing searches on the web then THAT would scare me more.
These are both very interesting questions. To answer #2, I would not continue using Facebook if it started making actions based off of my personal thoughts. I would like to be in control of what I view and what others are able to see.