After coming back from a relatively short break, reading Understanding and Maintaining Your Privacy When Writing with Digital Technologies by Lindsey C. Kim and listening to Hybrid Teaching – Messy and Chaotic Learning hosted by Chris Friend and narrated by Martha Fey Burtis only left me hoping this is the worst blog post I will write this semester. I can assure you that after reading words like “unfettered” and “doxxing,” my neurons were spinning out of control. I’ve never seen so many x’s together, less I thought I could read a word with two x’s in a row, but yet here I am, kind of following the thread. This takes me to the one contract we all sign while accessing a website and none of us read, the terms and conditions.
Privacy on the Web
Besides a complex and well-written chapter, Understanding and Maintaining Your Privacy When Writing with Digital Technologies enlightened me with perspectives not once I thought about in my life over issues; as part of a generation who grew up in the World Wide Web era, my generation keeps complaining about. Ah, the sweet terms and conditions acknowledgment, the one most of us have used as a medium for selling our souls and identities to nasty billionaires.
Increase your agency on the web by becoming aware of what you agree to on terms and conditions clauses
Is this worry, or rather background concern, that makes me want to extend my appreciation to many people, but to make the list short; I’d have to thank L.C. Kim for sharing a little further the existence of ToSDR.org, an organization whose goal is to simply and provide accessibility to the Terms of Service; [that we] Didn’t Read. Ergo, why, I’d have to thank Hugo Roy, founder of said organization, for doing such a solid job for the world.
My intrigue for this website was insatiable. This seemed almost illegal, or even punk rock if I put it in my own words. I believe making the terms and conditions for a website so difficult to read and understand is a tactic to prevent the audience from being aware of how their data is being used, that’s why I took a quick dive to see who the parties involved in ToSDR are. To my amazement, out of 19 collaborators of the organization, six didn’t have human pictures displayed in the “about us” section of the website, and two had unintelligible blurry pictures. Coincidence? I don’t think so. This, to me, screams cyberpunk!
Identity on the web
Moving forward and now learning elementary concepts about accountability on the web, Burtis’ mentions the crucial importance of naming something since it is what “calls a thing into existence.” This extract bombed into my ears as I recalled a show I recently watched that examines self-exploration and fulfillment called Carol and the End of the World, where in the last episode, the human resource (HR) character, Kathleen, delves into the significance of learning a name, of something or someone.
In the scene, Kathleen assures for the tape of her HR case that “names are designations of who we are. When recalled, they create a measure of familiarity. When your name is spoken, a type of intimacy is created. You are no longer just a stranger or coworker; you are now an acquaintance with the possibility of more.” This passage, I believe, resonates deeply with Burtis’ understanding of naming something, a domain, which will represent who we are and how we’d like to exist in the web world.
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