Table Of Content

Topic Subtopic Learn about the complicated and evolving world of personal data and what you can do to protect your privacy. Better Living Personal Development T Taking Control “Pure intellectual stimulation that can be popped into a k the [audio or video player] anytime.” in g —Harvard Magazine C on of Your Personal Data t r o “Passionate, erudite, living legend lecturers. Academia’s l o best lecturers are being captured on tape.” f Y o —The Los Angeles Times u Course Guidebook r P e r s “A serious force in American education.” o n a Professor Jennifer Golbeck —The Wall Street Journal l D University of Maryland, College Park a t a Jennifer Golbeck is a Professor in the College of Information Studies and Director of the Social Intelligence Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park, where she also received her PhD in Computer Science. Professor Golbeck is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field of social media, and she is the author of several print and online publications, including the book Analyzing the Social Web. Her TED talk on what social media likes can reveal about you was featured in TED’s 2014 Year in Ideas. THE GREAT COURSES® Corporate Headquarters 4840 Westfields Boulevard, Suite 500 Chantilly, VA 20151-2299 USA G Phone: 1-800-832-2412 u www.thegreatcourses.com id e Professor Photo: © Jeff Mauritzen - inPhotograph.com. b Cover Image: © Peshkova/Shutterstock. o o Course No. 1138 © 2020 The Teaching Company. PB1138A k 4840 Westfields Boulevard | Suite 500 | Chantilly, Virginia | 20151‑2299 [phone] 1.800.832.2412 | [fax] 703.378.3819 | [web] www.thegreatcourses.com LEADERSHIP Paul Suijk President & CEO Bruce G Willis Chief Financial Officer Joseph Peckl Senior Vice President of Marketing Cale Pritchett Vice President of Marketing Jason Smigel Vice President of Product Development Debra Storms Vice President, General Counsel Mark Leonard Vice President of Technology Services Kevin Manzel Senior Director of Content Development Gail Gleeson Director of Business Operations & Planning Kevin Barnhill Director of Creative PRODUCTION TEAM Trish Golden Producer Michelle Pellatt Content Developer Juliet Riley Associate Producer Lisa Persinger Robertson Associate Producer Trisa Barnhill Graphic Artist Daniel Rodriguez Graphic Artist Owen Young Managing Editor Art Jaruphaiboon Editor Charles Graham Assistant Editor William DePaula Audio Engineer Gordon Hall IV Audio Engineer Valerie Welch Production Assistant Roberto de Moraes Director PUBLICATIONS TEAM Farhad Hossain Publications Manager Blakely Swain Copyeditor Tim Olabi Graphic Designer Jessica Mullins Proofreader Erika Roberts Publications Assistant Renee Treacy Fact-Checker William Domanski Transcript Editor & Fact-Checker Copyright © The Teaching Company, 2020 Printed in the United States of America This book is in copyright. All rights reserved. Without limiting the rights under copyright reserved above, no part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in or introduced into a retrieval system, or transmitted, in any form, or by any means (electronic, mechanical, photocopying, recording, or otherwise), without the prior written permission of The Teaching Company. Jennifer Golbeck, PhD Professor in the College of Information Studies University of Maryland, College Park Jennifer Golbeck is a Professor in the College of Information Studies and Director of the Social Intelligence Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. She received an AB in Economics and an SB and SM in Computer Science at the University of Chicago, as well as a PhD in Computer Science from the University of Maryland, College Park. Professor Golbeck began studying social media from the moment it emerged on the web, and she is one of the world’s foremost experts in the field. Her research has influenced industry, government, and the military. She is a pioneer in the field of social data analytics and discovering people’s hidden attributes from their online behavior, and she is a leader in creating human-friendly security and privacy systems. Professor Golbeck is the author of several print and online publications, including the book Analyzing the Social Web, and she is a frequent contributor on NPR. Her TED talk on what social media likes can reveal about you was featured in TED’s 2014 Year in Ideas.■ i TTaakkiinngg CCoonnttrrooll ooff YYoouurr PPeerrssoonnaall DDaattaa TABLE OF CONTENTS INTRODUCTION Professor Biography.................................................i Course Scope ....................................................... 1 LECTURE GUIDES Lecture 1 How Your Data Tells Secrets .......................... 2 Lecture 2 The Mechanics of Data Harvesting .................. 11 Lecture 3 Privacy Preferences: It’s All about You............... 22 Lecture 4 The Upside of Personal Data Use ....................32 Lecture 5 Online Tracking: Yes, You’re Being Followed.........42 Lecture 6 Nowhere to Hide? Privacy under Surveillance . . . . . . . 53 Lecture 7 Consent: The Heart of Privacy Control...............63 Lecture 8 Data Scandals and the Lessons They Teach..........73 Lecture 9 The Dark Web: Where Privacy Rules .................83 Lecture 10 Algorithmic Bias: When AI Gets It Wrong............92 Lecture 11 Privacy on the Global Stage .........................101 Lecture 12 Navigating the Future of Personal Data ............ 111 SUPPLEMENTARY MATERIALS Resources......................................................... 122 Image Credits ....................................................128 ii TAKING CONTROL OF YOUR PERSONAL DATA Today’s headlines are dominated by reports of scandals and hacks involving millions of people’s personal data. There has never been a more important time to be informed and in command of what personal data is, how it’s used, and what you can do to protect your privacy. This course introduces you to the complicated and evolving world of personal privacy in the digital age. You’ll learn what constitutes personal data, both online and in your physical interactions. You’re already familiar with much of this data and how it’s gathered and used, but you may be surprised at how data can be aggregated and analyzed by powerful algorithms to reveal astonishing things about you. You’ll be guided through the mechanics of the many technologies that exist to track your behavior online. Sometimes these technologies make your life easier, but often they are used in ways that are hidden and can be used to manipulate you. How comfortable you are with these practices is a personal choice. This course will help you figure out where you stand on the spectrum of privacy approaches so that you can choose the strategy that works for you. The course offers concrete advice and tools for creating and maintaining privacy controls that work for you. You’ll find a variety of control strategies for all of your privacy concerns, from VPNs and alternative social media options to technologies that help you navigate the bewildering world of consent. Some of the most serious personal data issues can only be addressed through regulation, and you’ll discover how governments in the US and abroad are dealing with these serious concerns. The world of personal data is constantly shifting as technology evolves. This course teaches you how to ask the right questions and find the right answers to keep your data safe and protected—today and in the future. 1 Taking Control of Your Personal Data HOW YOUR DATA TELLS SECRETS LECTURE 1 The landscape of data collection and analysis has changed many times over the years—sometimes in expected ways and sometimes in surprising ways. Never before in human history have we been able to share so much about ourselves with other people so quickly. And never in our history have we been so exposed to forces that want to take advantage of that ability. And this new reality has pros and cons. 2 1 How Your Data Tells Secrets e r u t c e L Artificial Intelligence Algorithms Personal data can be a When she did, she posted a powerful tool to help people. photo of herself at the beach Consider this example. Suicides on Facebook. The insurance among soldiers, especially company paying for her those returning from conflict disability saw the photos, zones, is unacceptably high. decided that she looked like she The Department of Defense was having a good time and acknowledges this as one thus was no longer depressed, of their most frustrating and revoked her coverage. problems that they want to Apparently no one told the do more to address. One insurer that even severely project showed how soldiers’ depressed people can smile and social media data and other laugh sometimes. writings could be analyzed by artificial intelligence and We all know that when we used to identify people at risk post things online—whether of self-harm. The resulting it’s a restaurant review or tools could identify suicidality a social media post—this more accurately than state-of- personal information can the-art medical approaches, be seen and shared. Data is and these were built into collected in many startling other tools to help medical ways, and new information professionals intervene. is created from that with artificial intelligence. But that same analysis can also be used to hurt people. Our data tells stories. It is bad One infamous story comes at keeping secrets. Artificial from Canada, where a woman intelligence can bring those was diagnosed with severe secrets out—sometimes for depression and put on long- good and sometimes in very term sick leave. Her doctors creepy ways. advised her to try to have fun and maybe take a vacation. 3 Taking Control of Your Personal Data You create a lot of data by just But data is collected in many existing in a digital world. Your more subtle—and some might purchases are tracked through say nefarious—ways. Maybe your use of credit cards and you’re chatting with a friend in loyalty cards. Your internet person, not using your phone traffic and web searches are at all, and say, “Next year for recorded. Your social media spring break, we might go to posts contain all sorts of Costa Rica!” You don’t look up personal information. Your anything about Costa Rica or phone tracks your location, post about it; you only make the apps you use, and the time the comment to your friend. of day you are using them Yet the next day, ads for Costa and connects that with your Rican tourism start appearing contacts, calendars, phone on Facebook or blogs or other calls, and text messages. websites. How does that Cameras capture your happen? Some apps have code movements in public spaces. that turns on your phone’s It can be overwhelming when microphone and passively you list it all out like that, but listens in! most people probably aren’t surprised by any of this. 4 1 How Your Data Tells Secrets e r u t c e L Huge amounts of data are intelligence algorithms being collected about you, and that analyze what you have you’re probably unaware of interacted with before and many of them. Why is so much then guess about new things collected? Because it can be you might like in the future. But used to generate even more what’s going on inside those information about you! algorithms, and what else can they find out about you? You’re probably familiar with artificial intelligence algorithms An algorithm is just a that use your data, even if you series of steps a computer haven’t thought about it. For takes. Artificial intelligence example, Netflix and Amazon algorithms are steps a both make recommendations computer takes to become to users. Netflix suggests “intelligent” about something— shows you might want to such as Siri understanding watch; Amazon recommends what you’re asking or a map products you might want to application finding a good buy. They do this with artificial route for you to take. Machine Learning Algorithms A machine learning algorithm Each day, it would note the is a specific kind of artificial conditions and then wait to see intelligence algorithm that if you go outside. If you do, it helps a computer learn things. learns that that day’s conditions As a simple example of how are good. If you don’t, it these algorithms work, say learns that they are bad. Over you have an app that tracks time, it builds up a model of when you go outside for a your preferences. walk or a run. It also knows the weather. If that app had a There are great ways that machine learning algorithm algorithms help people every built in, it could start to learn day, but there are also terrible which weather conditions uses of it that invade people’s are conducive to your walks. privacy and impact their lives. 5 Taking Control of Your Personal Data We build up mental models like in 2012. Researchers used this for ourselves and others people’s public Facebook all the time. If you walk with information to guess what a friend, you probably know their personality traits were. what days your friend will Basic personality tests, want to come out and what such as the Myers-Briggs days he or she will want to stay Type Indicator personality home. That’s because you have inventory, measure things learned a model of his or her like whether you’re an behavior, and even if you’ve introvert or extrovert, if never seen a day with this you’re a procrastinator exact set of conditions, you or a planner, and if you’re can still make a good guess. open to new experiences or prefer to do the same Machine learning models do things habitually. the same thing. The algorithm takes some input, such as To make an algorithm that weather conditions, and an could guess these traits from answer about whether it is Facebook data, researchers a good or a bad day. Then, the had hundreds of people algorithm builds a model from take a personality test and a series of examples. When it’s then fed a machine learning done, you can ask it a question algorithm their Facebook about a totally new set of data and their scores. weather conditions, and it can The algorithm learned a make a guess about whether model of each personality trait. it’s a good or a bad day. In the end, the algorithm could guess someone’s score Machine learning models on the personality test can use your personal data exceptionally well just by as input instead of weather examining their Facebook conditions to build up models data. It was only off by about that let them guess all kinds of 10 percent, which is basically personal things about you. how much your score can A lab at the University of change when you take a Maryland did one of the first test depending on the mood research projects in this space you’re in. 6