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.

Getting to Know You: An Affirmative View

“Everything people do online is avidly followed by advertisers and third-party trackers,” according to the “Data: Getting to Know You” article featured back in September 2014 on http://www.economist.com. In this day and age, many people are becoming increasingly more aware of how their information is gathered and exposed on the internet with each new web page that they join or account that they create. This article in particular compares this ever-growing information culture to “Divergent,” a book series and Hollywood film in which humans are categorized for life based upon their aptitudes and values. Yet while the world of online advertizing and data gatekeeping may not be as structured, I agree with the idea that gathering information about users and grouping them into sellable “segments” has become a large component of business in today’s society.

The article discusses how we as a society and world are in an information war. It is 100% about having more information about the customer than another company, and thus being able to generate more commerce as a result of having this greater knowledge.

The internet has increasingly made it easier to gather data about users because of users leaving traces wherever they go. Facebook and Twitter contain codes within the “Like” and “Tweet” buttons that enables to social-networking companies to track users’ movements and interests, according to the article. What remains in question is whether or not users are fully aware of websites doing this.

Quick quiz to see if you’ve been keeping up with our posts: Who are the people who collect our data that can be found on the internet?

If you’ve forgotten, they’re called data brokers. And they earn their living by helping advertisers and publishers manage their data, as well as selling them more data about users (that’s you, by the way). Most consumers have never heard of the companies that make a full-time business of gathering data about them, but they are aware of the firms that do it as a sideline. So many people are quick to say they “have nothing to hide” and go on to wonder “why should I care?” There’s actually a whole wikipedia page dedicated to that train of thought, called the Nothing to Hide argument. Uneducated internet users will tout this all the time, unaware that the legality of their activity isn’t at stake. When it comes down to it, it doesn’t necessarily matter what it is you’re doing, but how that information is being used.  The economist article best vocalizes how people should become increasingly more aware about how their data is used, bought, and everything related to ways that their personal information is transmitted around the web. We as humans constantly need to be in the know about who sees our personal information and how it is distributed.

Marketplace.org provides a few tips as to how you can avoid some of this data ever being collected in the first place. Even if you have nothing to hide it’s not a bad idea to heed to some of these suggestions, namely using non tracking search engines like Duckduck.org and making sure to always read the Terms of Service even if they’re lengthy and obnoxious. (#thinkbeforeyouclick anyone?) Other suggestions, while seeming obvious, are easily forgettable but can be helpful in protecting your privacy–namely clearing out your cookies and browser caches and using different email addresses when signing up for sites and services. If you’re not expecting a confirmation email you can use websites like 10minutemail.com to create a super temporary address to sign up with.

Overall, people know that their data essentially is never private – we constantly sign up for new things on a regular basis and consistently advertise our private lives with just a few clicks and a “create new account” button. But, it is important that we know how our data is transmitted, who is doing it (and seeing it), and for what purpose. That is how we will develop trust and know that our information is used for a good purpose – and that is simply to enhance business and the economy.

Have the promises been kept?

With multiple people announcing their candidacy for the 2016 President Election, it makes you think has Obama kept his campaign promises regarding data transparency?

Broker Breakdown

Now that we’ve introduced Data Brokers to you and affirmed the criticisms pertaining to them, I’m going to show you what one of the Data Broker company execs has to say about his company and industry at large. Then I’m going to tell you why he’s wrong.

Brian Kennedy, CEO of Epsilon Data Management was featured in the 60 Minutes segment, The Data Brokers.  Epsilon claims to have the world’s largest working database and is a leader in their field. During his interview, Brian made various statements regarding regulation, consumers, and the Internet as a whole.
Mr. Kennedy states that he “see[s] no need for more oversight or regulation in one of the fastest growing sectors of the economy.” Honestly, I couldn’t disagree more.  What harm would regulation do? Kennedy likely thinks that regulation will harm data collection companies.  Restrictions on collection and use of data can only cost them money  and likely force them to stop performing some of their more unsavory business practices. It would protect consumers and users and allow for them to use the internet without fearing every site they visit being tacked on to their dossiers. The point of the matter is this: there is great need for regulations to protect consumers from data broker companies. The government is not in place to assist with a company’s bottom line, or to make it easier for it to operate at maximum profit. The government exists to provide checks on institutions so that the little guy (that would be us, by the way) don’t get bulldozed over. What makes Kennedy’s claim truly egregious is the fact that this “sector of the economy” he’s talking about is collecting and selling private information about people.

Mr.Kennedy also stated that he thought “self regulation [had] been very effective.” Well…of course the CEO of a Data Broker company would find self-regulation effective. That’s like putting a bunch of toddlers in a room full of candy and expecting them to self-regulate. We all know they’d rush in and take everything they could get their greedy little hands on and that fact stands true for Kennedy and his fellow Data Broker execs.

Everyone has their own opinion about what the internet is.  Kennedy wants you to know “that consumers need to understand that the internet is an advertising medium.”  This is rather ridiculous. The internet is plagued by advertising; there’s a reason people install applications like ad-block that remove all ads from their browsing experience. People do not like ads. People do not use the internet to view ads, and advertising should certainly not be considered some kind of inherent backbone to the internet. The internet has so many incredible, wonderful uses, and advertising is like the bacterial growth feeding on the internet’s underbelly. It’s inane to even make a claim like that, and it’s down right disturbing that he seemed to really believe it.

What’s so hilariously ironic about all of this is that Kennedy goes on to claim that he doesn’t put information about himself online ,”and I am a consumer like you are.” I really love how the Data Broker company CEO is saying that he doesn’t participate in the overarching online activity that makes his company even possible.

Sorry buddy, but even cigarette executives smoke.

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.

Houston, we have a twitter.

Hey you! Yeah, YOU.

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@eyesoffdata

And remember, as always #thinkbeforeyouclick