Monday, November 3, 2014
Blog Post #4: Privacy and Enhanced Personalization
The discussion on privacy regarding the Internet is more relevant now than ever before due to the increased use of social media and new technology used to track our location and recommend different products to us based on what we have searched. Alfred Kobsa's article from 2007 brings up a lot of big issues about privacy, such as what information is disclosed to companies and other internet users and how much control users have on what information is used. The points brought up by Kobsa really brings one's thoughts into perspective; everyday we provide so much information on the internet for companies and possibly other users to take advantage of. Being more of a Privacy Pragmatist, I am not terribly concerned with what I provide on the internet because I am careful with what I post and am mindful of what I search, but I along with many others want to be informed of how our information will be used. Kobsa's discussion on personalization and control of privacy settings resonates well with me and I agree wholeheartedly that individuals should not only be provided the tools to personalize what information is used and stored but also control how information is being used and by who. One thing I'm very concerned about is location tracking technology; I find it to be a bit too intrusive and it makes me feel uncomfortable always being tracked. When Kobsa starts discussing the technology for Personalized Systems I start to get a bit confused. The Normative Approaches are easy enough to understand; there are different laws and principles accepted by others that can be used to help keep anonymity when using the internet. I feel the technology on the other hand is a bit hard to understand without actually seeing it in action. Take the Client-side Personalization, for instance. I understand that all the users' data is stored on their side rather than on the server, but I don't understand exactly how it works. Do people allow their information out on the internet whenever they feel and just retract it back when they're done? The collaborative filtering part is a little easier to understand, yet the four parts of the filtering techniques all interact very similarly and differently when it comes to information sharing and again I feel it would be easier to understand if I saw it in action. My question is: what is an idea you have heard recently that deals with helping to provide privacy or that makes it easier for users to see how their information is being used?
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Alex,
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure I have an answer to your question. However, I did share your question about how client-side personalization works. It seems to me that if you put any sort of information into a website's database, they will be able to access it (unless some sort of law or server error prevents them). I wish the article had explained in a bit more detail how exactly client personalization worked, because it seemed like a smart alternative that can help protect user privacy.
Alex! Hi.
ReplyDeleteI really agree with you that the explanations within the article regarding privacy-protecting techniques are confusing. In regards to the Client-side vs. Server-side data storage- my best guess is that the client-side is when your information is only kept by the company (for example, Barnes and Nobles the company is the only group that has my data), and server-side data is either out for dibs (maybe marketers would gather the data) or could potentially be hacked?
I can't remember if it was in this article or one of the others discussed in class, but there was an example of a consumer being told where their data was going and for what reasons. Some websites, like Amazon, will give a brief explanation when asking for data. I can't fathom why more websites aren't doing this! It makes you feel so much more safe, like your data is going to good hands. But perhaps the benefit of selling our data outweighs the benefit of protecting our privacy?
The Amazon example is the only thing I have for a recent (ish) example of privacy-protection. I think now, as opposed to 2007, privacy is truly becoming more and more of a problem. Just as you said, with social media and location tracking, we look in the short term more than the long term. I think our increase in personalization (and therefore, decrease in privacy) is fully correlated with the increase in smart-phone use. Perhaps sometime soon, with nearly everyone using smartphones, the lawmakers will start trying to protect privacy, as it will be affecting the majority of the population.