What is Privacy?

                                            Image from VectorStock

 I read three articles about privacy. I value my privacy like any other person. I don’t use my legal name on social media accounts (other than LinkedIn), and I don’t post images of my face. My parents and friends do not tag me in images on their accounts. I clear my cookies on my work and personal devices. But I wonder if what I do is enough or too late to protect what I have, especially with more and more businesses and law enforcement using facial recognition software and AI to track everyone’s movements, spending habits, and other collectible data.

Prominent Tech analysts state that using Adblockers and VPNs helps protect your privacy. VPNs cost money when tons of people are already living paycheck to paycheck. Data privacy is low on the list. One could use a free VPN, but there is the risk of selling your data to others. Google, a company and search engine that a majority of individuals use, is the processing of making access to an adblocker on their applications obsolete by June of this year. 

 

The article from the New York Times I read for this assignment suggests using a different email for each account you make. That is too much work and effort for something I must remember, such as the email and password, years later. The same article states that we should not use Facebook. Facebook is one of the few sites where I can contact family and friends because they live across the globe without having to pay exorbitant calling or texting fees.  The article also suggests using Apple products if you value your privacy. This brand loyalty is ill-advised. As of last year, Apple was fined 8.5 million dollars for illegally collecting iPhone users ’ data for Ads.  

 

What about the students and workers who are not allowed to download or use extensions on the devices given to them? Isn’t their privacy just as important? Are they supposed to thinklessly think that their corporations and schools are updating privacy protections? What about public computers in libraries? It takes time to download VPNs and Adblockers, and when you are only given an hour to use the computer, it is easier to start on whatever you are working on than concern yourself about protecting your privacy.

 

The 2019 privacy tips state that you should change your social media privacy settings. That is easier said than done when companies make it difficult to find them or they are worded with so much legalese that the typical user doesn’t understand it. There is also the issue of companies making the selling of your data something to be opted out of after the fact when you didn’t know that was a thing happening when you created the account in the first place.

 

Even if you take all the safety measures for privacy on your devices, how do you know that devices from others aren’t stealing your data or that “Smart” devices like fridges, microwaves, and dishwashers whose settings are located on an app where you must remember a username and password are doing so too?

 

“10 Tips to Protect Your Online Data Privacy in 2019.” GeeksforGeeks, 15 Oct. 2019, www.geeksforgeeks.org/10-tips-to-protect-your-online-data-privacy-in-2019/. Accessed 27 Mar. 2024.

 

Manoush Zomorodi. “Do You Know How Much Private Information You Give Away Every Day?” Time, Time, 29 Mar. 2017, time.com/4673602/terms-service-privacy-security/.

Pogue, David. “10 Tips to Avoid Leaving Tracks around the Internet.” The New York Times, The New York Times, 4 Oct. 2019, www.nytimes.com/2019/10/04/smarter-living/10-tips-internet-privacy-crowdwise.html?action=click&pgtype=Article&state=default&module=styln-digital-privacy&region=BELOW_MAIN_CONTENT&context=storylines-guide. 

Personality Tests

Cognitive is the area I associate the most with the benefits of a PLN. I love learning and have always considered myself a lifelong learner. Learning things from other's perspectives allows me to see and solve problems in nontraditional ways. A jack of all trades is often better than a master of none.

I decided to take the three personality tests for my PLN. I have always taken these personality tests with a grain of salt. I have seen and experienced people falling into "groups" of personalities. Still, I generally assumed social or cultural norms influenced these traits, as we are primarily products of our environments. What I didn't like about these tests was that they ignored the shades of gray within people or situations and the habit of large businesses using them to weed out individuals with developmental disabilities such as autism, ADHD, and borderline personality disorder, stating their "personality" doesn't fit their work culture preventing them from getting hired. 

The first quiz I took was the FiveThirtyEight. I got an 88/100 for openness to Experience. This score makes sense, as I always like researching or learning about new things. However, I am apprehensive about trying new things without someone I trust. I got a 67/100 on agreeableness. This score also makes sense. I have been told I am a people-pleaser and have been slowly setting boundaries so I don't experience any more burnout. I do disagree with the low score in respectfulness. I have been told I am overly polite even when I do not need to. The low score in trustworthiness makes sense as I have been stabbed in the back, so I am slow to trust. I got a 46/100 on conscientiousness. This score is incorrect on two fronts. Keeping my desk space clean is challenging when I share it with three to four others. The other issue is that it doesn't consider the issue of coworkers affecting my productivity. Sometimes, I have to help them finish or redo their work because they are taking far too long on a task, making the patron line long, or have to fix an issue because they did it wrong in the first place. I got a 75/100 on negative emotionality. I am not surprised by this score, but it makes sense, as millennials have higher rates of depression and anxiety compared to other generations. The last score I got was 50/100 on extraversion. I am OK with this score. I've always seen myself as ambivert in personality. I am social to a point but enjoy my alone time. 

The second test was the Five-Factor test. I scored 65% on extraversion, 91% on openness to Experience, and 73% on consciousness—agreeableness at 66% and 61% on Neurtoticism. The choice of the word neuroticism is noticeable as it is a negatively charged word in today's society. The word neurotic has been routinely placed on individuals of minority groups whose anxiety and depression are products of a society that wishes them harm. 

The last test I took was the Personality type indicator. I have taken this one multiple times and typically get the same INFJ answer. To my surprise, I got INFP. It states, "You are imaginative, warm, idealistic, and compassionate. You are usually open-minded and accepting unless someone is violating one of your values." Yep, this is me to a T. It is actually on a plaque about the meaning of my legal name in my room. 

What does "I am traditional" mean in the first place? Traditional clothes, politics, social norms? This is so vague?!

Hey

Hey,
You can call me Oz. They/Them Please

I am a 32-year-old going on 33 this October and a resident of the city of Chicago.
I am completing my Master's in Library Informatics Sciences to become a Librarian with this class, and a class starting later this Spring will be my final semester at Dominican University.

I have two cats named Midnight, a black cat, Bob, a gray cat with no tail, and one dog named Cooper. My favorite color is yellow, and my favorite animals are cows, cats, and alligators. I enjoy painting and reading about cowboys (not the sports team) in my spare time.

I currently have two jobs, one in retail and the other as a part-time library clerk at a City of Chicago branch. I have worked in the public library field since the summer of 2019, starting as a page.
I aim to become a research librarian, as I love reading and listening to informative "essays" on various topics. Recently, the ones I find the most interesting are ones about social/cultural "norms" and how they got ingrained into societal structures. Such as beauty/fashion trends and gender identity/sexuality "taboos."

My experience with social media is that I use it as a tool to keep in contact with my friends and stay informed of current events in the world around me. I tend to reblog or comment on social media instead of posting my original "content." If I did post my own "content," it would most likely be pictures of my cats or some sort of art or activity I finished, such as completing a new Lego set. 

Growing up in the early internet, I was repeatedly told not to give out my real name, and I still hold that ideal. Seeing others who post their full names and locations gives me a bit of unease. Still, there is nothing I can do about it, with more and more social media sites forcing users to use their "real" names to either make an account or get protection from stalking/harassment for being a marginalized identity. 

Being a Millenial, I am smack dab in the middle of generations that picked up social media later on and generations who were born with it, and it's a weird dichotomy to see, especially when one "generation" is passing laws trying to regulate social media. It's more complicated than that, with issues of "freedom of speech" and content moderators not being compensated enough, along with AI spewing "data" at alarming speeds, making it difficult for social media users to find the real stuff. There is also the issue of censorship, with LGBTQIA+ (Queer) and human rights issues currently happening in the Middle East being erased from social media accounts. At the same time, conspiracy and other bigoted beliefs are allowed to spread like a virus hellbent on taking everything with them. 

All of this concerns me as a librarian whose job is to help individuals find the information they are looking for and protect users' privacy within the library itself. I hope this class will give me the tools and information to share with my patrons to be an effective social media user in this age of misinformation and discourse. 

Bob- Taken by Me 

 Midnight- by Me

"Me" - Tumblr Post