Thats All Folks!

Hello Everyone!  This will be the final post of Crystal Clear.  It has been a pleasure writing for all five of you (Shout out to Professor Hoffman, you the realest)!  Here, we will wrap up our arguments and share our closing thoughts, so close your other tabs because its about to get real!

–Terms and Conditions.  Read them you dummy! Companies outline what data they are collecting and how they plan on using it.  Now this isn’t to say that they should be trusted, but they will certainly give you more information before just clicking that box. The sad truth is that many companies make their Terms of Service and Privacy Policy documents unnecessarily lengthy and worded in a special litigative way that allow them to do things you don’t think they could. Despite the daunting challenge this may pose, think carefully before you click without reading them. You probably wouldn’t be willing to exchange your address, name, contact information, and internet browsing history to a total stranger in exchange for the ability to play some silly game on your iPhone, right? Keep that in mind the next time you want to sign up for that weird site you’ll never visit again, or download that trendy free game everyone seems to have but will be done with next week. #thinkbeforeyouclick

–Data Brokers, unfortunately, are a real thing.  These companies collect, organize, repackage and then distribute personal information and data.  They are the bane of my existence and could, some day, be the bane of yours as well. Some of the data they aggregate is your banking history, what you buy or even think about buying all compiled up into this nifty thing called a shadow credit score that could one day swing around and screw you over when trying to get a loan. Or, better yet, your teen years in which you googled some not so savory subjects are recorded and a part of your background information when your future dream job goes to check you out. You could be a good kid, great grades, nice work experience, but the curious phase you went through? If you’ve googled some weird stuff in college, you might not be hired. Scary, huh? Don’t forget there’s options like Tor and various VPNs that anonymize your browsing experience. Your connection might be slowed but privacy is priceless.

–Cookies, they’re delicious and malicious, a perfectly balanced snack.  When you log on to a website, your browser downloads and stores cookies.  They are small pieces of data that help websites recognize your computer.  When used properly, they actually are extremely useful.  When you tell a website to remember your username and/or password, that info is stored in a cookie.  Quick and convenient.  Originally most cookies acted like this, adding functionality to the web browsing experience.  However, as time passed and the internet matured, cookies took on a new role.  Today, they play a large part in the tracking of users.  Sites like CNN for example inject multiple cookies into your computer, theirs and those of advertisers and other third parties.  Quickly, your metaphorical cookie jar becomes a collection of your browsing history.  Both the websites you’ve navigated to and the ads you’ve clicked conveniently stored away.  Sneakily, some cookies take advantage of this collection and send all of this information back to their masters.  Boom! Your online experience is in the hands of online advertisers and the like, while your left with only crumbs.

Long story short, read the TOS of every site you use, account or not, and always #thinkbeforeyouclick! We hope you’ve enjoyed your time with us, because we sure have.

Think About it

Cell Phones and computers have essentially become devices through which advertisers can collect information on us and sell it to one another. Next time you use your mobile device, think about all the apps you have installed. If you haven’t carefully read through the access agreements and their own Terms of Service agreements, you might be sharing way more than you think you are.

Fun Fact: Facebook Messenger has constant and consistent access to your microphone, contacts, photos, and WAY more than you might realize.

Take a look at your permissions sometime, you might be surprised.

The CEO Love Affair with Big Data

In September of 2014, Fox Business published an article titled “Big Data Is Good: A CEO’s Analysis”.  Within the article, author Craig Boundy not only asserts that big data is good but also fails to mention any downsides.  Choosing to focus only on positive effects, big data looks like the saving grace of the world.  Medical cures, reduced crime, increased productivity, who wouldn’t love big data?  People need to remember that every choice has both its up and down sides.  Big Data may help over there, but not without eroding privacy over here.

Oh but totally only look in the sun, who cares about the shade?

Craig asserts that, “insights derived from data are enabling millions to obtain their first lines of credit.”  As the CEO of Experian, an information services company that provides credit scores and reports to banks and credit card companies, I doubt he could make any other claim.  But is it true? Well, that remains unseen.  A report released by ChoicePoint contradicts this claim.  ChoicePoint was a data collections company founded by Equifax, Experian’s direct competitor.  Their report claims that big data collection has created the concept of “shadow scores,” an unofficial credit score created from a grouping of online activity from both shopping and browsing.  These shadow scores are used by lenders in addition to classic credit scores to decide on the availability of loans and credit cards.  This new information reported is not always beneficial to consumers.  Banks can see a much better example of your payment patterns, whether you will repay or not.  They can see what you pay back first and can build detailed charts of this behavior. Rather than using only the official credit score that is mandated by government regulation, banks use these shadow credits to find alternate reasons to discriminate against you for a loan. This means you could have a perfect official credit score but still get declined for information on you and your spending habits that you didn’t even know existed. So, Craig, it seems these insights are causing a lot more harm than good if you look at it objectively instead of from your board chair.

The second egregious point Craig makes regards Bid Data being done “right.” He states “When done right — and in compliance with existing laws and regulations on data use — data is a force for good, driving economic growth, empowering citizens and enabling our society to run more efficiently and const-effectively.” There’s several things wrong with these claims. First, there’s no real way for all of this to be “done right” as of now. What’s especially laughable is his reference to “compliance with existing laws and regulations…” We’ve discussed in previous posts how one of the biggest issues regarding the big data industry is the complete lack of regulation and oversight. For the most part, data transparency is an undefined grey area, the only real regulation that exists is self-regulation and we all know how well that works. (It doesn’t.)

Craig is definitely correct when he says big data drives economic growth, but he couldn’t be further from the truth when he tries to claim it “empowers citizens.” If there’s anything in this world that big data definitively doesn’t do, its empower the every-day consumer. It turns citizens into highly identifiable data points, slotted into the “potential customer” classification for any product that seems to match the list of interests they have. It takes their information, their likes, status updates and tweet streams and records them all without letting them know. It compiles shadow credit scores that are difficult for the average person to a) even know exists and b) access without difficulty, while potentially being the reason they can’t get a loan or a mortgage. It contributes your searches and private browsing history to background check sites that then share that information with potential employers and educational institutions.

Big Data has a lot of potential, but ignoring its numerous downfalls is akin to standing in the eye of a hurricane and claiming the day’s weather was perfect. Businesses have a lot to gain from utilizing Big Data, but if they don’t do so with reasonable transparency and consumer protection protocols in place, well…the rest of us have a lot to lose.

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Data Brokers: What They Are & Why You Should Care

So we’ve talked about how necessary it is for companies to maintain data transparency, and we’ve discussed the insane amount of information they collect and circulate, but what we haven’t gone into yet is the role of the data-mining companies themselves. Today we’re going to fix that, while also introducing some additional big data terminology to your lexicon.

As this 2012 CNN article explains, there are companies out there, fondly termed data brokers, that “collect things like contact information, demographics and your preferences on things” and then “aggregate that information to try to discern a picture of what people want.” CBS News defines them as “collecting, analyzing and packaging some of our most sensitive personal information and selling it as a commodity…to each other, to advertisers, even the government, often without our direct knowledge.” FYI, I’m not talking about Facebook anymore. No, this is that mysterious “third party” that you’ll find in nearly every TOS you’ve ever agreed to, it’s the all-knowing “them” I’ve referred to in every post. The CNN article introduces one such company called Acxiom. In an interview with the reporter, Acxiom CEO Scott Howe proudly offered the above quotes I used as a definition for data brokers while going on to explain the necessity of his company’s services. Thankfully, the article’s author goes on to report the many potential issues with these data brokers, particularly these following points:

1. “the average consumer has no idea that their intimate personal details are up for sale on these sites”

My bets are on the fact that you never knew Acxiom existed.But Acxiom knows your name, number, where you live, your gender and all the things you like and don’t like. You’ve never visited their site, and yet they’ve got a nice fat folder with your name on it, for sale to their various clients.

2. “data mining could open the door to hacking, identity theft and stalking.”

What companies like Acxiom do, and what all data brokers do, is create these enormous dossiers containing a lot of really important information on you. It doesn’t matter if you have “nothing to hide,” any law abiding citizen can have their entire lives hacked away by anyone savvy enough with a computer to get into whichever data mining company they so choose.  A security researcher from Dell SecureWorks explains that, “just basic information…can lead predators to potential victims… That’s a common scenario, actually.”

The article goes on to state several more critiques and I definitely recommend reading it if you’ve got some time.

The funny thing about these data brokers is that they seem to float in this mysterious grey area, a giant legislative question mark surrounds what they do and how they do it. There’s no federal regulation encouraging them to encrypt the information they have on you or otherwise keep it protected. CBS News explains that data brokers have always been around, but have grown immensely in volume as of late. What used to be somewhat harmless collections from surveys and phone calls has become malicious and dangerous. The author explains, “No one even knows how many companies there are trafficking in our data. But it’s certainly in the thousands, and would include research firms, all sorts of Internet companies, advertisers, retailers and trade associations. The largest data broker is Acxiom, a marketing giant that brags it has, on average, 1,500 pieces of information on more than 200 million Americans.” Can you even imagine what 1500 pieces of information on you would look like?

Data Brokers are viewed with plenty of criticism, which is something we are extremely happy to see. It’s great that big news names like CNN and CBS News are educating their readers about Big Data and explaining the numerous consequences that follow in data mining companies’ wake. Hopefully this post has helped clarify all those “them”s I’ve been referencing, while making the chain of information a little clearer.

There are some tools out there you can use to reduce the amount of information these companies have, such as Abine, a company that claims to quite literally “remove your information from data broker sites.” Of course this service comes at a cost, and cannot guarantee that everything will be found and removed. So remember, as always #thinkbeforeyouclick and be careful what you do online. Nothing is private, and you never know who’s watching.

Anonymous for the common good?

Many people believe that Anonymous is a group of no-good hackers who want to wreck havoc. But is that true? Check out this article that talks about 8 hacks done by Anonymous that have served and helped the common good.

Is it funny or our future? #thinkbeforeyouclick

This is precisely the direction in which we could be headed…It may seem innocent enough in this form but think about it applied to all contexts. Everything you search, text, click on etc could be held against you without a warrant.

#thinkbeforeyouclick

So we’ve talked about transparency…

But do you actually know what data transparency means?

Essentially, data transparency is the ability of consumers to know and understand what information is collected on them when using an online service and how that data will be used.

Check out the data coalition website for more information. They’ll explain in more depth what data transparency is and calls for as well as providing information on the data act. We’ll talk more on this later, but the data act is:

the nation’s first legislative mandate for data transparency

This is a pretty big deal, so if you feel compelled absolutely check out the site here. Otherwise, feel free to sit back and continue checking this blog as you’ll be hearing more on the data act from us soon.

Confused by Big Data?

Or maybe you just need to learn about it in a different way. Terms of Service is a digital graphic novel that humorously explores not only Big Data but the relationship that develops between you and various companies as a result. Take a look if you’re interested in learning about the more complex concepts of Big Data in a funny, easy-to-understand way.

Employers and Social Media: A Refutation

A major issue that is becoming increasingly more prominent in the workforce is whether or not employers should be able to access your personal social media accounts, such as Facebook and Twitter, to pass judgments about your life and your character. These judgments can play into whether or not you are hired in the company, or if you should maintain your job in the chance that your social media profiles display some sort of characteristic that a boss or employer does not agree with.

The Business Week article, “Employers, Get Outta My Facebook,” claims that, “when considering job applicants, prospective employers have no business poking around their profiles on social networking sites.” This article makes a few claims regarding the dangers and risks of having employers and bosses view the social media sites of potential and current employees, such as the unearthing of inaccurate information or a misrepresentation of a person’s true character from just a few instances on their site. The article also argues that even if a person makes their profile public, a public profile is a method for “casually interacting with others in an informal setting, on personal free time.” Whatever the risk, this article declares that employers should not be allowed free roam of a person’s social media accounts in order to make job-related judgments and evaluations.

I am in disagreement in reference to the argument that this article presents, in the sense that your information online is in a public domain, so employers do have a right to view the content, but they should do so only if you are fully aware that they are. When it comes to internet privacy and data transparency, a person has the right to know if someone is using their information – that is displayed on a public forum – in passing judgment or forming opinions. While information that is publicly available is legally allowed to be used in reporting and news, it should be in the right of individuals to be fully aware and notified of where and how their personal data is used when it is taken from online sources. In whole, public information is public for a reason – for all people to use it. But, the information should be used sensibly and with the person’s knowledge that you are using their personal information.

The Business Week article does present some possible benefits of employers being able to use your online information from social media websites, such as your Facebook page serving as an extension of your resume. However, this still does not allow a person  to understand when and how their personal information is used.

In order to best address this problem, employers should have their employees and potential employees sign a document that allows the employer to view social media websites to further research about their staff members. With this, people can understand when and how their information is used, and appropriately adjust their privacy settings if they wish to keep certain aspects about their life completely private.