how concerned are you personally about the data that Facebook and Twitter collect on you?
If you have Facebook/Twitter accounts, how concerned are you personally about the data that Facebook and Twitter collect on you? Have we gone so far beyond “privacy” that it really doesn’t matter, or does Big Data pose a problem to you personally? How about societally? (If you don’t have either a FB or Twitter account, elaborate as to why you do not and whether the above is important in your decision not to use the two most common online forms of social media?) Something to muse about — It′s nearly impossible to disappear from the interwebs. Even if you DON′T engage in the social media ″scene″, the chances are that you can find yourself online. In fact, part two of this DB is pretty simple: EgoSurf yourself. Type your full name into the Google search engine. Or, if you want more privacy in your searches, try https://duckduckgo.com. (Links to an external site.)Same results, fewer ads, and it doesn′t track you. [unique_solution]When I Google my full name in all three permutations (″Scot Boeringer″, ″Boeringer, Scot″, and just Scot Boeringer without the quotes), Of the non-ad entries on the first page of results for each of those three searches, the links that are in fact information about me are: ″Scot Boeringer″ [if you don′t know how to GoogleHack, the first thing you need to know is if you put quotes around a word,the results MUST have that word. Quote a phrase, and the same thing applies] : EVERY hit on the first page of results is about me (and contains links to others as well, which is annoying) ″Boeringer, Scot″, once again, every single link on the first page of results pertains to me or a family member. And finally without the quotes: Again, every link on the first results page is about me or an immediate relative. So after you answer the first part of this DB, EgoSurf yourself and see. If your name is really common, you may find few results about you. If you′ve led a very, very quiet life, you may find little about you. But I bet a few of you will be surprised. The second part of this DB is telling us about your EgoSurf trip. Are you invisible? Are you out there but lost in a crowd of a million others who share a name? Was there anything in that search which turned up information on you that was surprising? Worrisome? Wrong? Is this storehouse of information good or bad? Or something else? To sum up: Respond to the paragraph about social media and leaving your mark indelibly on the world. Respond with your thoughts about your EgoSurfing. Respond to another student in your group. Easy!