Have you ever been scrolling through social media, and liked a single post, just for you to see multiple similar videos moments later? Well, this isn’t designed by accident. Everything you do on your phone is tracked, recorded, and analyzed. Social media, location services, and adveritsements are all apart of the complex and even scary reality of data that the governement has on you.

Social Media

Most of us are aware that that if you like or comment on a video, you’re showing the algorithm you enjoy that content, therefore you are likely to receive similar videos. The truth is, even before you like the video, your phone is already collecting data on your reaction. With every scroll you make, the algorithm determines your watch time, comments, if you forwarded it, how many times you watched it, etc. All this information is to try and feed you more content you’ll find desirable. 

Location 

Every step you take is being tracked on your maps. Everyday, I get in my car, and my maps have a predicted destination ready. The maps app has considered the time of day and created a prediction of where it thinks I’ll be going. If I get in my car in the morning it automatically pulls up directions for school, while if I’m driving after school it’s pulling up directions to my place of work. My daily whereabouts are stored information, that I didn’t particularly intend or purposeuly ask to be recorded. 

Advertisement 

Websites and apps work together to push information out to you in order to persuade you to buy products. Through cross-platform tracking and accepting cookies, apps collect information on what you are viewing to advertise them across more platforms. This isn’t always short-term either. If a platform recognizes that roughly around the same time a year, you view hotels or condos in a specific area, the algorithm will start advertising them around that same time every year. Information is stored long-term, and nothing you do on your phone ever truly goes away.

Dangers of Digital Footprint 

With every single click you make, text you send, or photo you post, you are changing and morphing your digital footprint. While you might be under the impression that nobody can tell you liked that controversial post, or that text you sent on Snapchat is gone forever, that is not the case. Every interaction you have ever made on your phone can be pulled up. Almost 5 years ago my brother’s Snapchat messages were pulled up to help a police investigation concerning a neighbor who vandalized some property. Your digital footprint can impact your job opportunities, and reputation, and have a lasting impact on your life. 

All this to say: Be careful 

According to  Marissa Lang in There is No Such Thing as True Privacy in the Digital Age “… experts said, is a grim slice of reality: When it comes to digital data -photos, conversations, health information or finances -nothing can be perfectly private. Every descison we make on our phone is being evaluated. Every post we make and every video we like isn’t hidden and can be found somewhere in the depths of our data collection. Having technology comes with responsibility and we must be careful and thoughtful of everything we share.