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Running head: Personalization 1
Privacy and Knowledge:
The Sacrifice of Personalization
Running head: Personalization 2
Abstract
The use of technology has grown exponentially in recent generations, such that most people’s
lives are impacted by it in one form or another. We conduct our personal and professional lives
through the convenience and accessibility of technology. This prevalence has, for many,
provided information to us resembling an online personal assistant guiding us through our
schedules, travels, purchases, finances, and more. We are empowered by this information, but at
what cost? Our personal information is being tracked and stored by technology which is being
utilized by other individuals and businesses. When we are able to access our personal
information from anywhere, we run the risk of other’s accessing this information. Sometimes
this is to the advantage of the individual but there are times when it is not. What is the tradeoff?
Is the ease of accessing the details of our lives worth the judgment of an algorithm deciding what
information is important to us?
Running head: Personalization 3
Since the advent of our current technologically driven age, many aspects of our lives
have changed or taken on new meaning. The attitude toward the details of our personal lives
have lost a sense of privacy as more and more services are focusing on the personalization of the
individual user experience. Through social media and this repeated focus on the individual needs
and wants of users has fostered an inflated sense of self which jeopardizes the private self for the
public image. In order for search engines, browsers, and commercial internet services to cater to
this growing expectation of “for me”, concessions must be made. It is important to know these
concessions we are making if an informed decision is to be made regarding the true importance
to us of this desire for personalization. One person’s feelings on having personal information
tracked, stored, and shared could be much different from another’s. Knowing how to allow and
disable these settings allows more control over personal information. (Clancy, 2015) (Lee, 2015)
Some information we provide in the process of creating a personal service is apparent.
We knowingly offer our name, address, birthday, and even our financial information for the sake
of convenience. There is much information we unwittingly share which also contributes.
Sometimes this includes information we do not even know personally, such as demographical
statistics. It is how these statistics are formed that is interesting. Browsers compile information
on other users in our area and compare these findings to our own activities in order to enhance
our experience.
Chrome is widely popular for the amount of features it offers and the ability to make it
unique to the user regardless of location or device. Any activity involving Google or Chrome can
be used to enhance the functions of Chrome. This includes the personal e-mail, search terms,
Running head: Personalization 4
links and videos viewed, applications, games, advertisements…anything you do online through
Google or Chrome is tracked and included in an algorithm. (Gross, 2009) This is most noticeable
when using Chrome because so much information is shared with Google. Information entered in
the address bar, links that have been clicked, passwords, search terms, and bookmarks are some
of this shared information. (Purdy, 2011)
Firefox shares a similar relationship to Mozilla as Chrome to Google. The information
gathered by Firefox is similar to that which is collected by Chrome. This information in collected
into reports which are transmitted to Mozilla. These data collections are Telemetry, Firefox
Health Report, and Crash Reporter. These may be viewed or disabled through the browser.
According to Jenkins (2014), these information compilations are defined as telemetry, or usage
