My thumbprint radio

I have few application on my phone, but all of them are free applications. I have to assume that if the application is free, that though there may not be an obvious payment, there will always be something that the user will “pay” in return for the application use. The two main applications that I use on my phone are; Pandora and snapchat. Both free applications, but both clearly state in their privacy conditions that they harvest, sell, and aggregate data from the users of this application. Though you could see this as the application or the organization (behind the app rather) as making a profit off of my stream of interactions via the web. However for me, I see this as the exchange program that has taken place in order for both the user and the organization to gain some sort of service. For me, I get to listen to the music that I like, and pandora gets the data they need to both improve their business and sustain it through advertising. However The one concern that I have with these application using my aggregate data, comes from the argument that JJ approached in class. The idea of algorithms making decisions for me, and how they can dictate preferences online. For example, Pandora has launched the new concept of “thumbprint radio”. I love music and often lose track of music that I once liked due to my ever changing taste. So the idea of a radio station that compiles all of the music that you have ever liked into one station seems phenomenal (in theory). However this station to me is somewhat of a disaster. For the most part because of my sperattick listening, but also because of the algorithmic decision making. The station is split between the music that you have thumbed up, and the elected music that the station has calculated for the user. But what seems to be happening, is there is this constant flow of similarities over and over again. The same songs, just as the other stations, but this time only more diverse in the genre.
Overall my main concern with the mas distribution of my data, is not the things that these companies will do with it. It’s the idea that I will be stereotyped and subjugated in the way I am treated while online. This doesnt only apply to me, but every user. Each person is subject to an alternate reality in which they are the center, with little exposure to the realities of diversity.