Reading and Blog Post for March 30

• Reading to be read before class on Wednesday, March 30.

“Are We Stuck in Filter Bubbles? Here are Five Potential Paths Out.”

Link to the article: Are We Stuck in Filter Bubbles?

Do NOT watch the video on the linked page! We’ll use it in class. Only read the article.

Blog Post Assignment:

In a 400-500 word blog post, we want you to think about predictive analytics in the world today.

Think about predictive analytics in terms of applying your own personal data. What types of data do you provide that could be of use to businesses/corporations? What specific businesses, corporations, politicians and non-profits do you think would target you based on your information? How would they try to influence you?

What is your reaction to the possibility of being specifically targeted online? After the readings and lesson, are you more likely to change your online habits now that you have an understanding of how your data can be used? Does predictive analytics make you more wary of advertisements and products that are shown on your browser? Have you noticed trends of videos, advertisements and ideas that have values and interests similar to your own, that are more than likely the product of predictive modelling and data mining?

This last activity is a way for you to gather some predictive analytics about yourself and we will discuss it in class. If you have trouble with the download try using google chrome instead of safari or internet explorer. Was there anything about your data that was surprising?

Google offers a feature where it discloses the data it has stored about you. To get a good cross-section into some of the data points about yourself that companies like Google hold, download your data off Google for this blog post. Allocate some time to do this because it takes awhile. Go to https://takeout.google.com/settings/takeout. Scroll to the bottom and click “next”. After the page refreshes click on “create archive”. It says it can take hours, even days for Google to compile it, but we have already done so and it takes about 15-20 min on average. It should be sent to your gmail inbox. The archive itself takes another 15-20 minutes to download onto your desktop. Look at your google +1s, Bookmarks, Calendar, Fit, Google Photos, Groups, Hangouts, Keep, Mail, Maps (your places), Profile, Tasks, Contacts, Drive, Google Play Books, Google+ Circles, Google+ Pages, Google+ Stream, and YouTube data. Contemplate how this may affect inferences that may be made about you. We will discuss more about this next class.