Coercion and the internet: Do we really have the power?

Book of discussion by John Gulliom and Torin Monahan

At one time, I thought my informational data was useless and I threw my email address around the web signing up for random free subscription.  Then I read the first three chapters of Supervision: An Introduction to the Surveillance Society by John Gilliom and Torin Monahan.  They explain that we are being watched through many different methods by cellphones, the internet and our shopping cards.  The internet may be the easiest way to get our information because it is fast and rewarding.  In their third chapter, the authors say "To entice us to participate, we're offered convenience, social belonging, discounts and a bunch of free apps.  So we 'opt in'. But this is too simplistic.  It implies that the choices we're given are real choices, meaning that we can say 'no, thank you', without any repercussions."  While online I throw around my spam email to get quick discounts or read information.  I never thought it meant anything to the government or anyone important.  But it isn't the government who is always sifting through my data, it is small private data aggregates who are filing my information and selling to advertisers who hound my Facebook with "relevant" adds. The internet is a quick way to obtain information from internet users and when we think we are in control are we really?  No, through careful wording, internet data collectors imply that we make the decisions when we don't.

Facebook is a popular social networking site because it provides the social interaction and communication that we have normalized.  Facebook has begun to utilize a new tool to collect data on its users.  Facebook's mobile app stopped messaging features and now you must download a brand new app to use Facebook's instant messaging.  It was attractive to users as a free app that helped you stay connected to friends while you were on the go.  It was harmless.  This new app however, asks to have permission to your text messages and contact list, which you automatically give permission for when you accept to download it.  This gives your contacts and text messages to Facebook.  They may not be able to see what your texts say, but it is metadata that they never had before.  Under the guise of a cool new app, your personal texts and contacts are being horded to a database for later processing.  But this may be a bit too extreme and hard to prove.

Depiction of multi-page articles

Another example of this is these cool new websites that popped up recently on my news feed and twitter timeline.   They had interesting articles  filled with topics such as, "15 things you can't live without", or "8 best crazy costume ideas", "10 reasons boys like you", "Top 8 celebrity outfit mishaps".  The interesting facts and gossip are tantalizing and many click on them.  But, you find the article in multiple webpages.  You are forced to go to a brand new page to move one to each fact. The first page would give a picture of one of the items on the list and then after clicking next, two sentences would pop up under the picture to give a snarky comment or explanation then you click next again to go to the next item on the list.  To get through a top 10 list you needed to travel to 20 different pages not including the title page. It wouldn't be so bad if there weren't advertisements in the corners of the pages ready to talk at you and caused the webpages to load slower.  You were sometimes prompted for your information to stop the adds and just read the top 8 best costume ideas.  The website was attempted to collect the metadata from you and sell it.  It was very enticing to only give them my name, area and email address but I would always leave out of frustration.  These pages entice users  by giving them convenience. These are one of the many ways data can be collected from you.

Quote that truly represents the lack of control we have.

By reading Supervision, I discovered the methods that my data could be collected and who wants it.  In middle school, we would joke that the government was watching us, but in fact its advertisement companies.  Now that I know that my information is being used to tailor advertisements towards things I have searched and shape my search results,  I now want to control how much of my information is being distributed to these companies.  From the extremes of the Facebook Messenger app, I learned that I may not have much control.  By not downloading the app it is inconveniencing me to not read my messages when I am notified that I have one.  It is annoying pulling out my laptop to check Facebook.  By visiting those websites I choose not to read those interesting facts or gossip because I would rather not sign up my information to give them, but I do feel disappointed when I am unable to read them.  By using these types of approaches, it is clear that we there is little we can do as uninformed users to control our information.  I agree with Gilliom and Monahan's argument that we are under the impression that we control our information output, but we have very little control.