“Wedding guest long-sleeve maroon maxi dresses” was a recent Google search of mine. After that simple request, I got hundreds of different results, from sponsored brand ads to website recommendations. But it didn’t end there. A few days later, I was scrolling on Instagram and saw an ad for a long-sleeved maroon maxi dress with the caption, “WEDDING GUEST DRESSES 25% OFF NOW.” This was not a single occurrence as I then proceeded to receive several more of these ads over on Youtube and TikTok. I only searched for a long-sleeve maroon maxi dress for wedding guests on Google once, but somehow, my algorithm knew what I had been looking for and wanted to feed me more information about it. This is the modern, digital world as we know it, where our “digital privacy” is never truly private.
Is Digital Privacy Even Possible?
In Lindsey Kim’s article, “Understanding and Maintaining Your Privacy When Writing With Digital Technologies,” she dives into the reality of where our personal data goes after a simple search or post. With this, Kim explains how digital platforms easily collect and share the information we provide, usually without the user’s knowledge or consent, which aids in the strengthening of our algorithms but also compromises our personal information.
Although it is fairly impossible for our data to remain completely private when using technology, certain practices can help keep us as protected as possible. For example, users of technology can work to build digital literacy and make a conscious effort to decode the terms of service that websites provide to better understand the sites they are using and trusting. Making simple changes such as these can not only help technology users make more informed decisions about their online presence, but they also allow users to become advocates for their online security.
Leave a Reply