tracked
executive summary
Smartphones. It's hard to imagine life without them. These devices shape and transform our everyday lives. They create job opportunities, allow us to connect with old friends, guide us through navigation, and so much more.
Smartphones have made our lives so much easier and convenient. But at what cost?
The problem at large is that most smartphone users surrender their information because they believe they have to in order to use these devices, it's essentially a zero-sum game.
We are throwing away our privacy and individual identity for convenience.
This report will bring awareness and offer safe and attainable solutions to better protect individual online privacy.
The contents of this report will include the dangers of modern smartphone surveillance.
This paper will be discussing what is data tracking, what companies are the most common trackers online, and present data representation of Americans' perspectives on their own online privacy. Additionally, it will offer preventive measures you can take to feel in control of your digital privacy and security. Therefore, leading you to regain confidence and trust in how you operate these digital tools.
goals and objectives
The first step of this paper is to address the problem at hand; our loss of confidence in protecting personal data while using our smartphones. I will provide factual and statistical information that displays how American's interpret the protection of their personal online privacy experiences.
Next, I will be discussing how this must be understood as a large concern to many smartphone users, due to the fact that most users choose to neglect the impacts of their digital footprint.
Then, I will be discussing the biggest app trackers and what they do with your digital data. Additionally, I will be discussing how these companies are able to hook you into sharing so much information with them in the first place.
Lastly, I will be offering steps you can take to feel in control of your privacy, security, and overall well-being.
what is tracking?
Data tracking describes the hardware and software, which when used together allows you to know where something is at any point in time.
About half of Americans feel as if they have no control over who can access their online searches.
% who say they feel __ control over who can access the following types of their information.
Loss of control over personal data: as shown in the graph above, when it comes to different types of information Americans lack confidence in what they have total control over. Almost 82% feel they have little, to no control over their physical location. This means that they assume they are being tracked just by having their phone on them (in a pocket or purse).
Almost 85% of Americans have a smartphone. Implying that 85% of Americans can have their physical locations identified at any time.
the problem
Online privacy has become a pressing matter in recent years. We are all very familiar with the concept of targeted advertisements. These digital marketing techniques play a large role in our everyday smartphone use.
If you are not familiar with targeted advertisements think of it like this - You're interested in taking a vacation, so you search a couple of destinations (Bahamas, Aruba, etc.). You go back to your day checking the news or social media apps and you are bombarded with advertisements about booking hotels in the Bahamas or cheap flights to Aruba. You're a little concerned... it's almost like someone is watching you?
Well, it's not just someone... it's digital corporations, governments, and other outsiders tracking your every move online.
We often forget that when we have our devices customized to our personal choices and desires, something must be given up in return. Unfortunately, that thing is our data and information.
As consumers, this trade-off has been present for a long time. Unfortunately, with the rise of social media and its complexity, our ability to understand the consequences of digital tracking is dwindling. To the user, the consequences of online tracking seem far-fetched and foreign, while the benefits seem more appealing.
While using these digital devices we assume that the way we go about our business is completely anonymous. This sense of anonymity is a misconception.
"Pretty much everything we do online, down to individual keystrokes and clicks, is recorded, stored in cookies and corporate databases, and connected to our identities, either explicitly through our user names, credit card numbers and the IP addresses assigned to our computers, or implicitly through our searching, surfing and purchasing histories." - Nicholas Carr, Wall Street Journal
One of the biggest dangers of data tracking is that our personal information can be used to influence our behavior. As the use of digital marketing algorithms and techniques continues to expand, corporations gain more knowledge and power on how to predict our future behaviors. Traditional market research used to involve surveys and focus groups. With the rise of Big Data, it's a completely different ball game. User market research has now shifted to examining user's every move online.
Advertisers have access to extremely personal details from our web-browsing habits. They can then use these patterns and create ads tailored to a specific individual.
In case you aren't concerned yet, I'll provide an example:
A teenage girl, who is insecure about her weight, watches a video on how to be motivated to work out and lose weight. Next thing you know she's getting harassed with ads about unregulated weight-loss supplements or treatment.
loss of our individuality
Tech corporations largely advertise the importance of "empowerment of the user," but their actions say otherwise. These companies preach individuality and then disregard intellectual property. We must condemn these data tracking enterprises before we lose our individuality altogether.
Their goal is to automate our everyday choices, big or small. They feed us information curated for us - choosing what news we see, which clothes we should buy, what friends we should connect with. It's all handpicked for us specifically and we have no say.
Our sense of the world is delicately crafted by the information presented to us for intended reasons, and yet we do not know what those intended reasons are. When these companies track every click and search they begin to create pools of data about us. When you combine personal information with external data sets you can create new facts about that person.
The ACLU provides examples such as the fact a person can be pregnant, or is showing early signs of Parkinson's disease, or is consciously drawn toward products that are colored green or blue. The problem with these facts is a person might not want that type of information to available to others or the user might not even know these facts themselves. As humans, we like to be in control especially when it comes to our own personal choices. Our world is slowly being shifted to one in which we have no control.
The ACLU article that was referenced above also discusses the issue of Big data tilting the playing field toward big institutions and away from individuals. In economic terms, advancing the power of big companies over other economic factors, allowing indiviudals to be easily manipulated.
It's extremely important to note that as tech companies and large corporations continue to invest in big data individual discrimination can evolve, both intentionally and unintentionally. According to the ACLU, some studies suggest that new uses of big data may be negatively impacting people's abilities to get a job, housing, or insurance. Many people raise concerns that big data makes it easier to target specific groups and discriminate against them.
addicted?
The reason addiction plays a strong role in this loss of identity is that the longer we are on our phones the more information we surrender to data companies. Corporations create techniques to keep us constantly engaged and entertained. Just by being on Instagram and scrolling if we see an ad for shoes and look at it longer than we would for an ad for toilet paper that is noted in our online data marketing profile.
Web and app developers use various techniques to keep you constantly engaged. One common technique that is often used is the continuous scroll because it's proven to keep you searching for at least one good post to read. Another is using reverse chronological order on feeds which makes you constantly refresh the page to see whatever the most recent post or news is. These tech companies know what they are doing. They claim to be "improving user experience" when in reality they are making us addicted.
Every design of our social media apps is strategically placed. Every button, notification, and swipe is placed for a reason. A CBS study refers to this phenomenon as "brain hacking," "A computer programmer who now understands how the brain works knows how to write code that will get the brain to do certain things," (CBS).
These programmers know that when you put your phone down your brain signals your adrenal gland to produce a burst of a hormone called, cortisol - which triggers a fight-or-flight response. Cortisol relates to smartphone addiction because it creates this constant state of anxiety to check to see if someone liked your post or commented on your photo. Unfortunately for the user, the only antidote to this is to check our phones.
A study conducted by Harvard Business Review explained that merely having your smartphone close by may impair your cognitive functioning. Consider a dinner out with friends or a business meeting? Chances are your smartphone was right there on the table. Even just hearing your phone ding can boost your anxiety levels. Cal Newport advises that smartphones greatly harm our performance in professional activities that require uninterrupted attention.
It's important to note there are significant advantages to having smartphones. These devices can be used to check in with family, provide directions, check the weather, trade stocks, and more. So how do we resolve this issue?
app trackers
The first step in protecting yourself and your online identity is educating yourself about what apps/tools collect the most information about you
Have you ever really loved an app on your phone? Maybe you thought to yourself I can't believe I get so much enjoyment out of an app that didn't cost me a dime!
The primary source of revenue for social media apps comes largely from advertising revenue. If you are a social media user, you are essentially the product and large advertising companies are the consumer. What we do, where we click, what we like on social media helps create this revenue for these large tech companies. Due to the fact social media platforms are free, your private data is essentially a trade-off.
Our private data is collected and sold as targeting options to marketers. This is why a lot of advertisements you see on social media may be different from your moms or friends. Marketers create campaigns that specifically target you.
While this may seem convenient and beneficial, it's important to protect yourself and your online identity by educating yourself about what apps/tools collect the most information on you. Certain apps like Facebook or Amazon track a large number of data types from their users. The collected data points include connections/relationships, demographics, likes/dislikes, etc.
Surfshark recently published a study that uncovered what apps actually respect your privacy. They analyzed privacy policies based on 32 types of data that the Apple App Store lists to see which app categories collect the most data types. The next page will hopefully educate you about what apps are the most detrimental to your online identity.
next steps: where do we go from here?
Online data tracking is essentially inevitable as long as we continue to use our smartphone devices. However, there are crucial steps you can take to ensure the privacy and safety of your information online.
Clear Your Location Footprints
Location data can reveal important details about you and your habits (where you live, commute, go to school, etc.). Go through each of your app's permissions and turn off the location services for apps that don't need it.
Reduce Your Traces
The browser on your phone stores an insane amount of information about you – your interests, which websites you frequently use, your location and are giving that information away. Most smartphones tend to come pre-installed with browsers that don’t protect your privacy. Install a web browser that keeps your web activity private by default (i.e. DuckDuckGo)
Set Your Devices to “Do Not Track”
This is certainly an obvious step but can be commonly overlooked. In your web browser, you can enable "do not track" to keep your information safe from trackers.
conclusion
When we live our everyday lives with our smartphone in hand we generate a large amount of data in the course of our daily activities. We do this without putting much thought or regard into it. Which makes it very easy for data tracking vendors to adhere and sell our data to any number of companies.
Protect yourself.
There are certainly additional ways to keep yourself protected from the lurking eyes of Big Brother and the numerous tech companies profiting off your every cyber move. It is important to keep yourself both informed and aware to not give in to data companies' overarching goal of stealing your personal information.
Data-driven services are advertised as saving users time, money, and well-being. Are we really benefiting from this system? The answer is simple, no. From this report, it is evident that there are far more dangers from data tracking than benefits.
It is important to understand the constant behaviors and mechanisms tracking apps and sites use.
Although it may be tedious - read an app's privacy policy before downloading, install a non-tracking web browser, disable location services when it's not needed. There are so many steps you can do instead of surrendering yourself and your data to trackers.
"There may be nothing particularly embarrassing or personal about my vulnerabilities as a consumer, but I do not especially want to share them with companies so that I can be manipulated for their financial gain." -Rebecca Rosen, The Atlantic
The goal of this report was able to inform you of what data tracking is and how to prevent it from damaging your sense of identity so you feel in control of your privacy, security, and overall well-being online.
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