Digital Shadow: Just Plain Creepy
You go about your life unawareof the Digital Shadow you cast_Your life is measured in gigabytes.Data comes at a cost_
These are some of the ominous calculations Digital Shadow performs using your digital footprint.Algorithms can predict your interests,your desires, even your fantasies_
Want to know who is secretly stalking you?
Want to know who your pawns are?
Don't think you have a very large digital footprint?
Well, guess again. Among other things Digital Shadow will tell you about your "Liabilities" or people that consistently post about you making you vulnerable to attack. It also lists your "Obsessions" and "Scapegoats" -- people you would sacrifice if you had too.
Digital Shadow looks at your online Facebook data and provides a psychological profile of the digital you. Perhaps the digital you is "Neurotic and exhibits high levels of self-absorption and insecurity" meaning you can be easily threatened.
Digital Shadow can also assess when you are most digitally active--a prime time for vulnerability because you are connected.
But wait, it gets even better, it can estimate how much you're worth, whether you have multiple financial assets, the places you like to hang out AND even generate possible passwords to your accounts.
Time magazine notes that “Letting Watch Dogs scour your profile can act as a sobering reminder that the information you put on the Internet can potentially be used against you.”
You may not want to see your digital profile, but then again what do you think your psychological digital profile might say about you? How vulnerable are you?
It is almost bittersweet to know that there is a oar that follows us everywhere we go, that shadows us in many different ways. Throughout life we always have these constant questions of our peers, wondering what they are thinking about, who they like or dislike, why they act the way that they do. Majority of this information one can simply find out by asking , but if there is no prier relationship between the two people then how will he or she know? The answer is social media. One may not realize, but majority of a persons thoughts and feelings/ characteristics are expressed through Facebook, twitter instagram, whatever else social media one may possess. But one might ask themselves, is this information suppose to be viewed by the public eye, not including your followers ? now days anyone can investigate you and find out how much you are worth and what you spend most of your time doing when surfing the web. In some cases one might say that this is an invasion of privacy, and others might say, if you don't want your information out there for everyone to see, simply don't put it out there. Whatever your feelings are about the subject matter, I am sure you will think twice about the information you allow Companies like Google to have as well as the information you dispose about yourself to social media. Just some food for thought
ReplyDeleteThe internet has opened up so many doors for the public allowing us to access so much information about the world. However this article has a point, all this access to the internet has its consequences. We give out so much personal information out online especially on social media site and all this information can be used against us in the future. Posting our whereabouts and displaying our likes and dislikes can make it easy for our passwords to be known and when exactly we are the most vulnerable to an attack. I don’t know how vulnerable I am because I don’t use social media but I do shop online a lot, and typing in card numbers online is never safe. But it is really scary to know that everything you do online is saved and that by looking at these “digital shadows” a psychological profile can be created showing what your insecurities are.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this its kinda creepy to know that there is something building a profile on you and everything that you do and who you talk to and even password possibilities. I mean we have passwords to be private and if this program could figure them out then there is no telling who could figure these things out and who hands this information could end up in. However I am interested in signing on and see what this thing is about and finding out what it has on me and whether or not is is accurate.
ReplyDeleteOkay I don't even do social networking sites online shopping of no kind, or banking like most people do. the most that I'm online is when its about school. So its a lot creepy not a little creepy, when there is some type of digital shadow pretending to be me . Or if there is someone from my past that doesn't like me and wants to make me look like a horrible person, Can they do it?
ReplyDeleteI recently looked up an item I was thinking of getting online (ebay). The next day I saw an ad on my facebook feed for the very same thing.
ReplyDeleteThe ethical gray area that marketing thrives in is right here.
Imagine if your job is to find people to sell a product to. Before the internet this data had to be dug up. People would run surveys in malls, telemarketers would call people with magazine subscriptions, all in the hopes of finding a way to hit the bull's-eye where people want to hand you money for something you offer. Now all this data is online, free to grab. This digital shadow is only a quick glimpse at what data we leave on our social networks.
Even if you never intended anyone other than your friends to see what you put online, that doesn't necessarily mean that those data, and the trends that those data create aren't being collected by companies (if your security settings allow it).
Its kinda of creepy and funny, how the internet or social media, allows us to put some of our information online.this information one can simply find out by how or what we are up to. its a little bit weird that this so called social media at times could do some creepy things like either sending spams as a messages or emails. Putting our information out there, can give an access to hackers. we must try to be careful, in giving our information online. if we purchase any material should, online we must to try to change the card or order a new one to avoid theft and hackers
ReplyDeleteI believe that my psychological digital image is not as vulnerable as other people because i do not use many sites that have my personal information for example; Facebook, Myspace, Instagram, Twitter and many more. I am cautious about what I put on the internet and that has helped me be more safer. When I see a digital image of myself, I am not sure what to expect. There are some sites I use alot like Youtube, Google and some other search engines and those would most likely make up my digital personality.
ReplyDeleteThis was a little flawed, considering it told me that there was a 73% chance that I could be found at Rickshaw Express (a little Chinese food restaurant in Benicia). Where there is always a very good chance that I am here, I wouldn't say 73%
ReplyDeleteHowever, it did give me a really accurate description of my personality (high levels or neuroticism and low levels of depression). Although this was using an algorithm based on the words I use most frequently. I know this was meant to scare me, but it really didn't do it. Maybe I'm just naive?
I wouldn't put it past this company to login to your Facebook, steal all your information, sell it to marketing people, and spit out some useless percentages of time you spend in the McDonald's bathroom (less recently). I'm no data cluster Digital Shadow! Call me paranoid, but I just found out that the Club Card program at Safeway, Vons, Pavilion, and others, are paid for by corporations, to collect specific data on what we buy, what we like to eat, what brand of deodorant we use, how often we use said deodorant (if I skip a day tha'ts my business). You really can't trust anyone with your information now-a-days, and If you really want to protect yourself, just delete your social network profiles and hope that nothing too detrimental has already been archived for eternity.
ReplyDeleteIn terms of online networking, I am in general very careful about what I post online.I have a Google account, a Facebook, and an Instagram filled with information. However, the only thing there that is real is my name (The rest it made up), but I don't know what these sites can take from my pictures or my friends list. They probably know more about me than the information I've given to them and I expect my digital profile to be a mixture of truths and false information. I don't know what they can get in my pictures, but I imagine these social sites have headquarters filled with high tech computers and programs that can pinpoint my location or extract hidden information in the nuances of my statuses.Being paranoid makes me careful.
ReplyDeleteI know that I personally have spent a lot of time on sites that could reveal a lot about my personality. Google, YouTube, and Facebook are more than likely the most revealing about a digital shadow. I have a feeling that Google has kept records of all of my searches and related topics based on my searches. I had learned, last year, that the advertisements on Facebook were shown to you based on your likes, shares, and posts. After finding out that I was being watched, I started limiting my Facebook activities. YouTube is another scary one. They keep records of the types of videos that you watch to suggest other video’s to you in the future. The digital shadow can guess a list of passwords that you are likely to use? What? That is not okay. People should not have to worry about the internet keeping records about something is important and private as a password. In my opinion, that makes it easier for hackers to gain access to your files and information. Whatever this digital shadow is, it needs to disappear.
ReplyDeleteIt seems that my "digital shadow" isn't casting a bad image over me, or as I see it. What I did find interesting is the time that I am most active for an attack, which was on tuesdays at 9:00 A.M. - 10:00 A.M. This was pretty accurate because I am on for the most part on tuesday mornings. I was looking at the data that they have retrieved from my Facebook and most of these posts are mostly old, but there are some that are pretty recent. However, it does seem risky to put a lot of my information out there for the public to see. Another example is the "We Know Where To Find You" section. It says the probability of ever finding me is 1.1% because the only post was from 2011 at a beach down in Southern California. Although, I have not seen any red flags, I believe most of my info and everybody else's info are going towards companies and for them to see see what we like so that they could hook us and bait us to buy a product from that company.
ReplyDeleteDigital shadow sounds terrifying and really reflects how technology is smarter than humans and how it is getting smarter and smarter. Growing up I was not really involved with computers and technology so I don’t have many accounts for social media and other websites. I made a Facebook a couple years ago to stay connected with friends and was old enough to already know not to post anything confidential or information to make me look bad. I don’t think my psychological digital profile would say much about me because there is barely anything out there about me, but it would probably be associated with school, work, and cars. I feel as if I’m not vulnerable at all because of the lack of information about myself, but I will never really know because I don’t want to check out my digital profile.
ReplyDeleteThe Digital Shadow does sound scary at first thought, but after reading it, I do not feel that this digital shadow would be able to come up with such data just off browsing through the Internet. I believe that the only way they would be able to come up with such personal data about you is if an individual was to put their personal information into the computer. This digital shadow would only have small access to things like school, work, interest, cars and places you might have visited, but other then that I do not feel that there is not enough personal information to come up with the psychological digital profile that is to in detail. I do not feel vulnerable to this for the change in current social media where a lot of personal information is not required no more.
ReplyDeleteI think my psychological digital profile will reveal my shyness and awkwardness and will show how outgoing I am. It will also show my great love for food and how I'm bored and on Facebook around 7 or 8 p.m. I honestly don't believe that I am too vulnerable because I don't have a lot of personal information on my Facebook page. I'm only vulnerable to this if I allow myself to be by putting too much personal information on social media.
ReplyDeleteI actually did go on this website because I am a curious soul. I love discovering knew aspects that I wouldn’t otherwise know about myself. It is a frightening thing to know that other people could know basic and even personal information just by looking at my social media. While on this website I discovered the people that I look at my profiles or tag me in pictures. It makes me wonder the power that other people have over me because of social media. I also learned that the word that I use the most in my Facebook statuses is “hell.” This made me giggle; however, it made me think twice about watching my language while I’m online. Overall, this was a great wake up call. I will be more cautious because now I know that what I say will always be there for others to watch.
ReplyDeleteWhen I first heard about this "Digital Profile", I thought… "No way!!"
ReplyDeleteI didn't even want to go try the program out because I thought it was pretty creepy. But eventually I did give in and I tried it out. My first reaction was that it was actually pretty cool. Although I did come to realized that some of the things that they calculated were a bit inaccurate. For example, my scapegoats were totally all over the place! Some of those people were my family and of course I would never sacrifice them. I didn't think that my digital profile had that much to say about me since I hardly ever really use Facebook anymore but what they say is true, "once you put something up on the internet, it is there forever". I have had my Facebook for a little over 4 years now so I could see how they could go way back into my earlier posts to determine my psychological digital profile. I didn't think I was that vulnerable with social media until I saw this digital profile.
I hardly go on facebook now, let alone post. After using the digital shadow, I found out I only made 8 posts, compared to the average 856 or so. So, I'd say i'm not that vulnerable. I did, however, went back to make changes on my timeline. My timeline was on "public" and could be viewed by anyone. It showed me relative and even where I lived and where I was from. I made sure to take those off though. So, with the help of digital shadow, I was able to make my profile more secure and hide my information that I only want friends to know. I hadn't updates any information since I was a junior in high school, so digital shadow couldn't really say anything about me or tell me what I'm worth since I didn't and haven't done much back then as I did now. Cool website, but it would've been a lot cooler if it showed you who actually looks at your timeline and pictures the most and the time that they do it. That would truly show who your actual stalker is.
ReplyDeleteMy opinion of a digital shadow and concern is not really a big deal, because majority of my information online is private. Therefore my social media is private to the public and only can be seen through my friends only. So it is more secure and keeps strangers out of my profile rather than if it was not a private account, than it would be public for everyone to see.
ReplyDeleteI do not think that the digital shadow would not be that much of a problem for me because, all of my social media accounts are private. And even though most of my accounts are private I am still careful about what I put on any of my profile. I feel that the digital shadow will only be a concern for people who are not mindful of what they put online.
ReplyDeleteIt is actually very scary to think about everything the internet really knows about you and what you leave behind is basically permanent. I do not believe that I have a digital shadow that I should be worried about but I am still very careful with what I post online. I believe it is important to make sure you present yourself in a professional way because it is very easy for an employer to just Google your name and everything that you have ever posted on the internet will pop up.
ReplyDeleteThis to me is very interesting. But as i got older ive learned that just because it say its private doesn't really mean it is. I would honestly love to see my digital shadow to know how much information is available to the public view. I think my digital shadow might show my obsession with selfies, but then it might also show that i really love food as well. I believe based on my digital shadow i would not be too vulnerable to the public because even though as much as i love selfies, i know how to keep control of my social media life.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading the Digital Shadow: Just Plain Creepy blog post, it made me really think about what algorithms can really predict my interests. Directly after reading this post, I Clicked on the digital shadow link, and let it perform my digital footprint. Although this app just connects to facebook to collect the data from you, it made me think about what if it could collect all of my digital footprints aside from facebook. If it could collect literally everything from instagram, twitter, tumblr, snapchat, all my searches and posts from my computer and or cell phone, I think that it would be in fact creepy. Another think to think about is that when we use the internet for searches, it actually keeps track of what we search, for example if I were online shopping, and then I go to some other site just to browse, I notie that in the adds on the website it shows my random online searches while I was shopping. Most of the time it actually shows the product that I was looking at. So if the internet can track those such things, image what else can get tracked, things like conversations, interactions with people, geo tagging, etc. basically imagine being aware that someone is always watching you and can record everything youre doing.
ReplyDeleteAfter reading this and clicking on the Digital Shadowing, it is interesting and creepy to learn about who my stalkers and scapegoats are. I learned that Digital Shadowing takes all the information from your Facebook and summarizes it for you. This tells me that the internet has no privacy even if you set your profile on private. Hackers can still find a way get into your social media and take your information. It is interesting that they can find out my locations and the times I am vulnerable meaning when I am on Facebook the most. This tells me that I should be careful on what I post and places I tag myself in. Once you post your information on the internet, it will be there forever and it will be difficult to erase.
ReplyDeleteIt’s really interesting when you think of the word “digital [media]” and “psychological” being together. Majority of the time, when people posted something on Social Media they don’t usually think about the consequences until the media brought up the danger and what damage it will causes. They rather thinking what others will think of them, and how others will define them. So as far as my opinion, I think the Media doesn't really psychologically define anyone, but the reflection opinion of whoever looking at the pictures. I got to admit my psychological digital profile doesn’t really define much of my characteristics or my psychological thinking. The reason I feel safe and not vulnerable to the “Watch Dogs” out there because I guess I’m always aware of the pointless of fake internet “likes” is useless in the real world.
ReplyDeleteI am aware that everything you put on the internet is now out there for good. There is no taking it back. This being said I am sure a lot of people are aware of this as well so I do not see how a digital shadow can be very accurate. I for one almost never go on my facebook. I only have one to keep in contact with a few people and because I am involved in several different groups so I have those on facebook. Other than those it is just for pictures and when my parents tag me in different things. Because of this I cannot see how my digital shadow would have an accurate reading of who I am. I am impressed though with how they would be able to tell with someone is frequently on their social media account because it is astounding how much the internet can retain and learn about a specific individual.
ReplyDeleteI am aware that everything you put on the internet is now out there for good. There is no taking it back. This being said I am sure a lot of people are aware of this as well so I do not see how a digital shadow can be very accurate. I for one almost never go on my facebook. I only have one to keep in contact with a few people and because I am involved in several different groups so I have those on facebook. Other than those it is just for pictures and when my parents tag me in different things. Because of this I cannot see how my digital shadow would have an accurate reading of who I am. I am impressed though with how they would be able to tell with someone is frequently on their social media account because it is astounding how much the internet can retain and learn about a specific individual.
ReplyDeleteThis is a terrifying issue to think of because in no form of way are you free to explore. Everything you are doing leads back to this "profile" who has you where they want. If one day the person does something wrong this profile make the person lead in a serious consequences. I think that people now a days really become aware of how they use the internet and social media. Especially because social media accounts holds your personal information with you and can recognize what you want to see or even be entertained by. Facebook for example, in my opinion they are the biggest Digital shadow because they post up entertainment and now websites of clothing line you can purchase items. Next time think before you go on the web and what you possibly buy on the internet.
ReplyDeleteThe fact that big businesses are investing so much money in prying into our lives is an embarrassment. The freedom of privacy is being exchanged for information about us that will make big businesses richer. Finding out more about consumers by violating our rights to profit should be illegal but is tolerated in this country. Some people feel as though they have nothing to hide but they are not realizing that there are people in the world that are taking information about you to find out your net worth, passwords and other very personal information. This is frightening because it allows abuse of power from the government and privacy is becoming almost impossible to maintain. Even for those who decide not to join social media, just by shopping online, paying bills, or sending e-mails could potentially compromise a job opportunity or get you detained if you are suspected of a crime based on your search results. If you are researching how to make homemade bombs for a research project of some sort, do not be surprised if the bomb squad breaks in to your home and the police handcuff you against your will to question you.
ReplyDeleteAlso, for the sake of keeping what I can private, I would not like to share what my psychological digital profile says about me.
DeleteWhen we mention and discuss about social media, we start discussing about something that has tremendous power and that evolved dramatically in our modern world. After reading about this article is hard to deny the fact that the digital shadow can see anything we discuss or post on social media, many make the decision of making it open the the digital shadow and to the public. But it is our responsibility of making what we want to and what is best for us public and visible to the digital shadow. Many of us make poor decisions of making certain things public that shouldn't be. So therefore, it is important to keep public post public and personal post personal so in that case the digital shadow may not gain all information about our life.
ReplyDeleteIt is crazy to think that this follows you around. If someone were to find your computer and access these things, they can make a judgement about what type of person you are. I never really thought about it, or even know about google guessing your age group. I knew Facebook was connected to most things, but I never thought it would lead to this. It amazes me that a digital shadow can estimate how much you’re worth, that is insane! I can’t wrap my head around it, but in the end I guess the more you post the more people know about you.
ReplyDeleteThis is what living in a free country looks like. We have all the freedom in the world in all different aspects but when it comes to the internet or other ways of communicating with others, then the government is always checking you and watching your every move. Every one knows your age, your insecurities, your strong point and all that can be used against you. Instead of the internet helping you out it does the opposite by judging you as a person. It's crazy to think that based on all the research done from you, passwords can be created . That I don't find safe. But in modern day, what is safe? The internet knows all about you and it has come to the point where you are no longer a self individual but you have a cyber spirit roaming around and everyone gets to meet you . The only safe thing to do is stay internet-free. But I doubt it being possible now in the modern day.
ReplyDeleteWell with our generation with Facebook and instagram i think that is the new way to determine what our worth is and whether or not we get along with people. For example someone with little followers, say about 100, will most likely only get fifteen likes max in a picture, making our psychological digital profile that we are introverts and like to keep to ourselves. But that is not always the case. Me, personally, I get along with a lot of people but my instagram might portray something else since i do not get a lot of likes and don't have many people following me. I would not say I'm really vulnerable because i do not post a lot of things now and if i do put up a picture 85% of the time its a picture of my dog.
ReplyDeletePaola Davalos
ReplyDeleteEnglish 1002
Blog quiz 4
The problem with "digital profiling" is that its not just digital. There are people in real life, not just computers, that go through your instagram, facebook and twitter and can put all the information together to know what city you live in, where you go the most, what websites you shop on, and many more things. As shown in the t.v. series, Criminal Minds, this is how a lot of murders gather information on people.
The digital shadow website is very very creepy; however, the website gives people an idea of what they should not be posting. I know for a fact i need to be more careful with what i post..
I am not quite sure what my psychological digital profile might say about me because i post like a teenage girl: complaining about several different topics in one day. For example my last two tweets were: "hella wish i could go to Bernie's rally!!! but i bet he wouldnt want me missing school :(" and "I've been having some mad cravings for green waffles" .... again, two completely different things. I will admit that i do post about my boyfriend A LOT (but what do you expect from a teenage girl) so if anyone is trying to snoop about me, they will probably know more about my boyfriend than me in the end. My posts may show that I live with my boyfriend but I am home alone most of the time. My instagram posts will show that i love love love concerts and you can find me at almost any rock, punk, or alt-rock concert. All my reblogs reveal i am a sucker for dog and cat vines. So i guess you could say i am a dependent person who is slightly "emo" (based off the music i listen to) yet loves to care for people and animals.
I can definitely say my accounts are very vulnerable. I have had the same password for all my accounts since middle school. Also, as said before, i post a lot of things about my boyfriend, so if someone wanted to hurt or attack me, they would know to attack him first. (sorry, sweetie!)
when you delete something from the web it isn't erased forever, which is scary to think about. Something embarrassing or something you don't want people to see can still be recovered. This is why the there are digital shadows because people think that deleting things of you social media or computer will stop it from coming our, but it doesn't it just creates a shadow that grows as you go along with your life. With my digital shadow there really isn't anything that is embarrassing or hurtful to me, its just more of bad spelling on a tweet or snapchat that causes my friends to taunt me. Other people dont seem to get that once you put something on social media it doesn't come down even if you press the delete button, which is concerning because as you go through life that shadow will grow and soon enough will to big for you to handle.
ReplyDeleteThe internet has evolved greatly over time and it has created the Digital Shadow. It has create many gateways for people to find new things online or search up certain people. It has become creepy that the media is building up a profile about what you do on the internet. I do go on social media often but there isn’t much for me to hide. But since I shop online it scary typing in my card number because I would never know if that certain site would be hacked or not. For the most part now I watch what I post now a days.
ReplyDeleteI personally think that my personal digital profile would reveal a lot about me. Despite not posting any personal content on social media and keeping my profiles on private, I find that looking at my searches would spill the information. There isn’t anything I feel the need to hide, I’m just concerned of my privacy because it is weird having strangers know so much about you- even more that you know yourself. They can track your habits you weren’t even aware of. I have always been aware of the digital footprint we leave whenever we utilize the internet. From a simple engine search, email, to social media post, a lot of information can be revealed. Just by looking up the weather reveals where you’re from. However, as kids begin their digital journey at a young age, I think that a lot of them aren’t aware of how to protect their privacy (even if it may be minimal with the technology these days, but they still should be careful of how they navigate the web). I feel that a lot of attention has been centered on the convenience that this technology provides us. We are always faced with the statements that it makes search results much more accurate, traffic routes, and such. But we are never properly introduced to the costs of this technology, especially since they are free.
ReplyDeleteThe data that we input can be manipulated and utilized whichever way the person who has access to it would like to. These days, there is much more awareness of identity theft but many see it as someone else charging your bank account. There is so much more to it than that and I think everyone who uses new technology should be aware of it.
It is crazy how we are constantly being "tracked" while using the internet without consciously thinking about it. To think all my google searches, and social media posts are being added to my so called "profile" creeps me out, but will it cause me to ever stop using the internet. Not a chance in the world.
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