21/01/2024
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๐จ๐จ๐ญ๐ฉ๐ซ๐ข๐ง๐ญ
Anemoia (noun) - Nostalgia for a time or a place one has never known.
This is the exact word that would describe the feeling I get whenever I see screenshots of old websites such as the websites designed with plain HTML and CSS, with all the silly GIFs and wacky designs, and the websites from the โGolden Ageโ of the Internet. In the early 2000s, when the internet became accessible to general citizens, it was a place for endless opportunities and imagination. The arrival of internet chatrooms, online forums, and social media platforms such as MySpace, with the rise of YouTube, truly brought meaning to the phrase โWorld Wide Webโ. It is the time that I wish I could have experienced first-hand to truly explore the ๐๐ช๐ญ๐ฅ ๐๐ฆ๐ด๐ต of the internet.
The exponential growth of Facebook in the late 2000s fundamentally transformed the architecture of the Internet, paving the way for Web 2.0. Web 2.0, which is based on user-generated content enables the users to create, share, and consume content like never before. The amount of data produced also led to an increase of the collection of data by several entities such as data-brokers, government agencies, advertisers, and hackers.
Web 2.0 lets advertisements be a part of the internet. Now the advertisers could reach their audience on an unimaginable scale. Using the vast amount of data collected from the user, they were able to create highly targeted personalized advertisements. We all have heard the famous story about Target shows pregnancy related advertisements regarding a teenage girl even before her father knew that she was pregnant [1]. This small incident proves to us how intrusive the data collection can be.
Some might say that โIโd prefer to see advertisements that are relevant to me, rather than unrelated ones.โ This reminds me of the scandal related to the 2016 US Presidential Election, where Cambridge Analytica - a firm specialized in using online data to create voter personality profiles - used data from Facebook to manipulate the voters [2]. How many of us would willingly let a big company sway our voting choices? We can find a lot of similar incidents like this. Such incidents highlight the importance of protecting our digital privacy.
๐๐ก๐๐ญ ๐๐๐ง ๐ฐ๐ ๐๐จ?
โฆฟ Clear your browser cookies periodically โ A cookie is a small piece of data generated by a website and saved on our web browser. It is used to remember information about us when we revisit the same website. While cookies are used in useful things like session management, some third-party cookies track our behavior on the internet. By clearing the cookies, the trackers will have a harder time following us.
โฆฟ Install an ad blocker โ All modern browsers support installing add-ons. Ad blockers like uBlock Origin will greatly improve online privacy by hiding the ads and automatically blocking third- party trackers.
โฆฟ Limit what you share online โ Most of us love to share every aspect of our life on social media, but it comes at a cost of our privacy. It is better to avoid posting unnecessary information online and minimize the data you leave behind.
โฆฟ Use end-to-end encrypted messaging services โ E2E encrypted messaging services such as WhatsApp and Signal we could prevent our data from leaking to a third-party.
โฆฟ Use privacy-respecting service providers โ There is a well-known saying on the internet: "If something is free, you are the product." According to that, try to avoid using free services when possible. Also, make sure to understand the privacy policies of a service before using it.
โฆฟ Compartmentalize your work-flow โ It is the best practice to use different browsers for different purposes such as work and personal use. Most of the modern browsers have the feature to create multiple profiles. Make use of that feature to separate your online personas.
Maintaining online privacy is a balancing act with ๐ฎ๐ข๐น๐ช๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ท๐ข๐ค๐บ on one end, and ๐ฎ๐ข๐น๐ช๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฎ ๐ค๐ฐ๐ฏ๐ท๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐ค๐ฆ on the other end. Furthermore, one should find a balance between privacy and convenience. After all, there is no point in having utmost privacy if it affects the ability to browse the internet with ease. With this in mind, we should aim for a gradual transition towards a more private online life.
[1]K. Hill, โHow Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did,โ Forbes. Accessed: Nov. 02, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.forbes.com/sites/kashmirhill/2012/02/16/how-target-figured-out-a-teen-girl-was-pregnant-before-her-father-did/
[2]P. Lewis and P. Hilder, โLeaked: Cambridge Analyticaโs blueprint for Trump victory,โ The Guardian, Mar. 23, 2018. Accessed: Nov. 02, 2023. [Online]. Available: https://www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2018/mar/23/leaked-cambridge-analyticas-blueprint-for-trump-victory
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