I’ve been ranting lately about issues raised by Eli Pariser’s book “The Filter Bubble.” Essentially, he argues that all major online sites collect data on us and make judgements about us based on that data.They share that data with other sites all the time.
This data very significantly impacts what we see when we sign in online. It’s not just advertising, but news, people to follow, and just about anything else you can follow.
In my previous post, I reported on how Facebook–the apparent worst culprit of these data assumptions–has pushed me away from many of my online friends. By the hefty response, it seems many people have had similar experiences and on more sites than just Facebook.
Earlier today, Rebecca Slossberg posted a response to my post, mentioning that Klout has taken a nice step in the right direction. You can now go to their site and look yourself up. Then you can see the topics on which you are being measured. You then have the choice to 
opt out on any topic that you consider to be irrelevant to how you choose to be measured, judged and profiled by online sites. For example, Klout said that I had influence on the topic of “Muslims.” I don’t know how they based that–nor does it matter, because I could very simply opt out.
Klout, like Facebook, has been no stranger to controversies But Klout has consistently demonstrated that it listens to users and cares about what we think. Not bad thing, if you happen to be in the influence-measurement business.
I commend them for their leadership in the right direction. They go further than other sites, but still it is but a baby step in the right direction, if you ask me.
Ultimately, you and I have the right to review the data being gathered on us. We have the right to correct errors and assumptions being made and marketed by data aggregators. Not only that, we should have the right to do this before they use it in any way whatsoever.
Newspapers or TV stations that spread lies about people because they did not properly check their facts get sued for libel. They lose credibility and this lose influence.
But online, assumptions about us are used to impact what is published about us and what we see is published. Our US Constitution is a wonderful and wise document, but back then such issues could not even be perceived.
But in this Conversational Age, I think there needs to be some new essential human rights. We should have the right to opt in–or at least rebut–what is being said behind our backs by online people who then decide to put in front of our faces. It should be at least as easy to see the data being collected online as it is to review our own credit reports.
There are those who tell me I should get over whatever it is that is bothering me. That this is the way it is and will be. Would those same people have told slaves they should always be slaves or women that they should not be allowed to drive or vote?
We users should have the right to opt in on what is said about us by content providers. We should have the right to edit out that which is untrue. We should have the right to see diverse views from diverse people whom we choose over the decisions made by software robots and the content providers who deploy them.
I seems to me that this right would be self-evident.
{ 6 comments }
@cabby I find people are increasingly concerned with privacy. The number of comments & retweets on this post shows that. It is well over what I usually get. Meanwhile Google just started a social network that is taking off rapidly because establishing social private networks is easy and Google seems trustworthy. I sympathize with your not wanting to sit in front of a computer–or even a mobile device. But you may find it useful or interesting to let it occupy some small part of your life. But that is up to you.
@shelisrael
Shel, i appreciate that you have taken the time to show me how important it is to you to have such a tool to change peoples minds on the different subjects in this world. i am without blinders,and do see the effects that social media have. The change in govenment in Egypt is a good example of your side that shows how many people can chage thier political enviroment through social media. For me, i just don’t like to sit in front of a computer, and at this time, i’m breaking my own rule on doing so, and responding to comments. For people who do not repect privacy, even their own, they do not understand the value of it. I think that was the point i was making. Once you become embedded in a Facebook, or tweet, etc., you have compromised your privacy, for the younger generation, they have grown up with less and less privacy, With homeland security and more. That is why on our Independence Day that we should remember what values this country was founded on, freedom of speech is one of them, but your right to privacy is another.
@cabby I very sorry that you feel this way. To me social media lets me talk with people like yourself–all over the world–who may share or oppose my views. It let’s me touch more people than was previously possible and makes me so very much more knowledgeable and wiser than I could have been. I hope you reconsider and try social media again. Surely a few of the billion or so people using it might have something that you will find useful or interesting.
cabby,
I love my privacy,and i long for the day that had us write letters and not have everyone read what we have to say to my friends and family. I guess i don’t understand the need to feel it is so important to think what we do or say is meaningful to other people. I just don’t get it. I don’t face book,nor twitter or anything else. All this has made us an impersonal society. It’s bad enough that we get felt up when we fly, let alone when we communicate on line, it’s not conversation, but more monologe. This is my first and last post on a blog and i’m only making these comments because my college instructor gave me this assignment. For the rest of you, please enjoy your self importance, after all this is a free country, with freedom of speech, as long as what you say is politcally correct.
Shel – good thoughts, but I think idealistic. The ‘Net is just too proliferative. Even if you were to reach to your sides and stick your fingers in two holes of the dike, the water’s going to continue to pour out of dozens of other holes.
Shel, I am flattered my comment inspired this post. I am not sure who is telling you to get over it, but don’t! I am an advocate for all things digital, I think not using social media is a fallacy! And I don’t hide any of my profiles either, I do not post anything I wouldn’t want my grandmother to see, and I am not afraid to share my email or phone number with the public. People who cry and whine about privacy and things like that make me crazy, to them I say get over it and stop being so narcissistic that you think anyone wants to stalk you online.
That being said, I think it is an entirely different beast when the things that you see online are determined based on a profile of what someone or some bot thinks you are. You should absolutely have the right to see that information and make changes to it in some way. I dont know what that is exactly. But being vocal about it and doing everything you can to influence that profile is the way to go.For example when I see ads on facebook that are waaaay out of left field I make sure to remove them, you can do that you know, and tell them why. Its annoying, but its a start I guess.
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