DataDataDataMeMeMe

I feel like defining the most valuable or marketable type of data is kind of tricky, and it really all depends on who or what company wants the data. That being said, I am also inclined to say that perhaps data that shows information about users’ age and economic status is the most marketable. I’m not quite sure how this would work unless maybe companies could track users based off purchases and were also linked with Facebook or some other site on which we generally post our age. (They totally do this already. And even if we don’t have our date of birth on a social media site, companies can gauge our general age demographic from pages like Facebook and LinkedIn.) If I owned data on users’ age and economic status then I would be able to heed the kinds of products they’re buying and the general price range that each age group is willing to pay. This data would likely allow me to make logical conclusions about income, and I could determine a price range of products to present to the users that would entice them. Then I would be able to give this data to companies selling certain products. This data collection process would allow companies to tweak and enhance their products based on specific demographics. Of course, this is all highly manipulative and a money-matters-most situation. It would be like making people pay me to give me their data so they can pay even more when they buy products that have been specifically marketed to them. Yikes.

Hmm, do I think companies are justified in how they are taking this data…. It is hard to say. I feel like terms and conditions and privacy and all that has become so blurred on the Internet, so it is hard to know if/when we are being taken advantage of. And I think that has given Internet data-collectors more freedom to twist and bend around what is considered justifiable. Overall, it strikes me as slightly immoral and duplicitous–because, for instance, I don’t buy a product online because I assume that somebody somewhere is collecting information about me that will be used to target me more specifically at a later time. Wording it like that just makes me feel angry (???).

Maybe I am a total idiot, but before this class I did not realize how much information about me was being constantly collected simply because I am an Internet user. I believe there are many “ignorant” Internet users out there who would feel that companies are not justified in their commodification efforts. It would be that sting of learning something pretty huge that you had no clue was happening, and then slam: you learn that his huge thing you newly learned is being used against you, in a way. And then, slam again: there is that human quality of selfishness and self-righteousness, and you get all defensive about people knowing things about you. Because you, you, you. And me, me, me. I, I, I.

And, gasp, how could someone use your information against you and get paid for it? Sadly, though, this is just what it means to be on the Internet in 2016. Who knows what it will be like in twenty, thirty, forty years from now? We could be running away from robots on the street, but they’ll catch us because they will already know how fast we can run. And then, yeah, I bet we will pay them for catching us. Ah, the future is bleak.

I’ve definitely said in every blog post that I am an avid online shopper, and I do a lot of this shopping with the companies’ apps on my phone. Also, like an imbecile, my NCSU email address is actually the one that I have linked with these retail accounts. So, I know that there is information about my general demographic that can be easily figured out from that datum. My Free People and Urban Outfitters apps are probably getting the most data from me. Data miners could check out what products I am buying and attempt to decipher how much I am willing to pay, and they could correlate my college student situation to the ideal price point for me. HOWEVER,  I am one-hundo percent an impulse shopper, and I sometimes will buy things I completely can’t afford–and the next time, I may purchase something dirt cheap because if it’s on sale then I am totally saving money, right? My shopping habits are not so erratic that they would fatally disrupt any data experiment being done on me (me, me, me); but I do wonder how unreliable my electronic activity could seem. Uh, I don’t think there is really any deep value to my data production. If you never met me and just analyzed data based on the apps/services I use, then you would likely assume I am highly materialistic and a shopaholic. But really, I just don’t have many apps on my phone, and the ones I do have are apparel-oriented. If someone wanted to do like, a sociological study on 22-year-old females and why they buy particular clothes, then perhaps there were be some greater value to my data production.