“Have you been exercising lately?”
Okay so here’s my late post on our human culture topic. I’m first going to run through the list of ways that I contributed to big data yesterday 1/24/16, and then I’ll share my thoughts from the activity:
- Phone – If nothing else, there’s at least tracking by Google and AT&T
- Tile – It’s a small electronic that uses bluetooth to help locate my phone and my keys. The app can track location.
- Jawbone UP – They have my health info.
- Facebook – I checked my notifications in the morning and other times throughout the day.
- Chrome – I started using chrome when I woke up and checked the news on vox.com. I proceeded to use it throughout the day.
- Student ID card – I’m not sure how good NCSU is at tracking, but they could track any hit on my card. Yesterday I used it many times to enter my building, but they could get food, packages, other buildings, etc.
- BoA Credit Card – I went to the grocery store last night and I got gas afterwards. I also ordered a tiny kitchen trashcan on Amazon.
- Google – I used google apps all the time yesterday: maps to meet my bro at a restaurant, calendar for schedule & to-do’s, drive for all of my files, and keep to record this list of big data contributions.
- Spotify – I spent a good portion of the afternoon unpacking, and that would have been impossible without some tunes.
- NCSU Resnet – I used NCSU internet most of the day.
- Phone Calls – Through my service provider Google Fi & WhatsApp.
- Texting – Google Fi, Facebook, WhatsApp (also Facebook), and GroupMe (Microsoft).
I did my best to track my digital footprint, but I’m sure this list only encompasses a fraction of my contributions to big data. I didn’t even mention any of the interaction I had with websites. For example, vox.com surely keeps track of which news articles are read. Regardless, it’s official, I’m burned. That intelligence job is gone.
Having done this activity, I can see that organizations are definitely able to piece together my identity. Can they get my whole identity?!? No, of course not, but they do know a lot about me. Pretty quickly, most of these organizations can tell that I’m a university student that lives in Raleigh NC. They probably know the majority of my shopping habits. They know places I have lived in the past. Since they know this about me and almost everyone around me, they can infer even much more useful data, such as the people with whom I associate.
Who knows this information? Likely the NSA and many companies. My guess is that the NSA and large companies know nearly 100% of my digital footprint and that smaller companies know part of my digital footprint through a small device, a website, or through acquiring data from one of the large companies.
Does this bother me? Well, my instinct is to disapprove of some entity tracking my life without me knowing about it, but I think it’s a consequence of the world we live in today. I’m over it. Track me all you want. I hope, and genuinely do believe, that big data will positively affect my life much more than it will negatively affect my life. With that thought, I wonder when it will positively save time and money in the medical field. My ‘Tomorrow Question’ is when will doctors never need to ask, “Have you been exercising lately?” or “Have you been keeping an eye on your sugar intake?” I don’t think we’re too far away from these routine questions being eliminated completely by self monitoring devices.
When will this routine survey be replaced?
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Good job thinking about the large variety of ways that we generate or interact with data on a daily basis. I think the “I’m over it” attitude is fairly common, especially among the Millennial generation and younger. Even those who don’t have that attitude really can’t think of any effective way to opt out, though. Thanks for the future questions regarding medicine – I think the medical field is one of the areas that big data really stands to make a huge positive impact!
I really enjoyed reading this post, and I am very interested in the Tile thing you mentioned. I’ve never heard of that before! And I could certainly use it, especially for my keys because I am always losing those. I would have to agree with you on your “I’m over it” comment, as I also feel that way. I feel like the way the world is today–and big data in general–is that there is just more and more technology coming out and a bounty of ways for which we can all be tracked somehow. I don’t know if my worries about what that could mean for me would ever even catch up to the constant new technology and effects of big data. Lastly, I’m wondering about your interest in the medical field. Do you simply have a personal interest in whether or not time and money will be saved by persistent tracking of people’s lives–or is there more of a concrete interest here? (In terms of your desired career path.. medical related?
Yeah so I’m studying biomedical engineering, and monitoring devices, fitbits included, are huge components of the medical device industry. Back when i wrote this post I had a lot of ideas about how fitbit-like trackers could be customized to particular purposes, but those ideas have fizzled out a bit.