Mission 2 - Culture

Process

For this mission we had far more options with our choice of topic to outline what digital culture is. Having read through each of the topics, me and my group decided on choosing the topic of Digital Privacy. 

Like the previous mission we started out by researching Digital Privacy and what it means. Once we had a definition we quickly found out that we had only scratched the surface of what Digital Privacy is. Our research led us to finding out that there are a lot of conspiracies and theories that are related to Digital Privacy. Some of these theories suggest that our devices such as Alexa and also Siri are listening to us at all times and that websites and apps are keeping track of our search history and using this to display advertisements that relate to us or are more relevant to us. We found out that this is because of one thing that everyone must agree to on each website they visit; cookies. Cookies are a piece of software that collect and remember your search history in order for websites to show anything that is more relevant to each user.

We showed this by carrying out a series of experiments. We decided to see if the theories were true about if our devices and apps were keeping track of our searches. Firstly we searched up cameras on google on a number of different websites to see if they would pop up as advertisements on other websites and apps. To no surprise we found the cameras being shown to us as advertisements on other websites and apps. This only took around half an hour until we started seeing the cameras again.

We carried out the exact same experiment on incognito (or private) tabs. We searched the same cameras on the same websites to see if we would get the same result and get advertisements elsewhere. To our surprise, the advertisements were no where to be seen. To give it a fair chance of allowing the advertisements to show up we gave it a few hours to work, but still nothing happened over the next few hours. By carrying out this experiments we realised that one of the best ways of keeping our data safe was to continue using the incognito tab on browsers so that websites couldn't retain our searches for themselves and other websites to use.

Through these experiments we had hoped to spread awareness of Digital Privacy and how people can protect their data online. Through our presentation we also hoped to show people the dangers of Digital Privacy and how it can effect them if they are not careful when protecting their data, such as the Facebook scandal in 2018 wen it was found out that Facebook were selling the personal data of their users to private companies to do with as they please. By using the methods I have mentioned this could have been prevented and peoples personal data could have been kept safe.

Product

The product that my group decided to make in order to demonstrate Digital Privacy was to see if we could manage to have advertisements show up that are relevant or relate to our recent search history.

First off we went onto a number of different websites and searched up the exact same thing; cameras. For a few minutes we browsed through cameras so that we would be sure that the websites would have more than enough time to recognise that we were spending more than just a couple of seconds looking at the cameras. Once we were sure that the websites had picked up our searches, we each went to our other apps, such as Instagram and Facebook, to see if we would be shown any advertisements for cameras. It wasn't long before cameras starting popping up for us on other apps, which confirmed that our data was being saved and shared between websites and apps.

As a control we tried this same experiment again but instead in an incognito tab in our browsers. We carried out the same steps as before, we searched up cameras and browsed through them for a few minutes so that or search history was recognised ans saved. Again, we also went onto other apps to try find the same advertisements, but this time nothing was found. We scrolled through our social medias for much longer this time but nothing could be found that was relevant to our searches. From this we gathered that because we were in an incognito tab that our data was not being saved to any websites data base.

Our experiments were far from over though. We wanted to test the theory that our devices are always listening to us. As a group we had a conversation but in this conversation we were talking about cameras. To really test this theory whenever we said the word 'camera' we would put extra emphasis on saying the word louder and clearer than any other words. These experiments took much longer than the browser experiments, as it wasn't until a full day later that we started to see the results but they were the same as the other experiments.
Having finished all of our experiments and research, we collected all of the data that we found and put it together all in the form of a power point presentation. In order for us to really show the impact of what we had found through our research, we took screenshots of our phone of us searching up and viewing the cameras on our phones and then us seeing the adverts on our other apps. We also took screenshots of us carrying out the same steps on the incognito tab with the different result. We put all of this together for us to present the information to our peers in our lab and to also warn them of the dangers that they may face when they are browsing the web and how they can prevent their data being breached.

Reflection

Over this mission I wasn't entirely sure what to be expecting. I already had a rough idea as to what Digital Privacy was and what it means. However, even though I was aware of some of the dangers that came with browsing the internet, I was not aware of how to prevent my data from potentially being breached. Through the research and experiments that me and my group carried out I now have a new found knowledge and means of preventing my data from being used for advertising purposes.

Through the experiments I now know that the use of VPN's (Virtual Private Network) and incognito tabs are the best way of keeping my data safe in the most secure way possible. However, using the incognito tab seems to be the most financially available option as most VPN providers require a fee for them to be used by the public. Incognito tabs are also much easier to set up and are instantly available at the push of a button.

I'm pretty happy with the project as the whole and can confidently say that the group performed well. All of our experiments that we performed turned out well and gave us the perfect results that we needed to show the effect that cookies have on everyone's internet browsing. Through these experiments we were also able to demonstrate ways of preventing data of being breached or used in a way that the user isn't being informed of. We used the Facebook data scandal as a starting point for this. seeing as this was perfectly relevant to our product for the mission. When showing our findings to our class group everyone seemed to be somewhat familiar with what we were talking about, so everyone also took something on board with what we were saying and were paying attention to the ways of keeping their data safe.

I know that from now on I will definitely being much more careful online. After all of our research I found out how easy it is for data to be taken and misused online by social media providers or online retailers or anyone that provides an online service. Seeing how easy it was for data to be passed around with ease I plane to be a lot more cautious when dealing with online data.

I think that me and my group worked really well together. We were always updating each other on the experiments or any new information that we found and thought might be of use for our project. Our presentation went really well also, having put all of our information across in the best was possible.