Una Code

(Photo: Una Code, by Dino Latoga. CC Licensed)

Do Not Track is an online interactive documentary about internet privacy. This series, directed by Brett Gaylor, is composed of 7 short episodes that educate people about who could be tracking them through the internet and how much of their private information can they access. What is most amazing about this experience is that it uses your own personal information, acquired through the web, to demonstrate how little privacy we actually have.

While watching it, I already knew some of the things it showed me, like how ads and news that I see on my social networks are specifically addressed to me because of things like my browser history or online purchases I’ve made. But what really had an impact on me was how they use my location, my likes on Facebook, my posts, the places I visit the most, and basically everything I do on the internet to create a psychological profile of who I am as a person, including who I would vote for,  based on my behavior.

Although some of this information was already known by me, it is still a very serious matter that I think people should be more aware of. Most of them just take the internet for granted and care too little about issues like Internet neutrality or the recent scandal surrounding Facebook. They should be educated about the full reach of the web and be able to learn how to defend themselves and their personal information. Even if they don’t have anything to hide, privacy is a basic human right, and the idea of foreign companies or strangers being able to violate it and access private stuff is honestly very scary.

Here are a couple of videos that highlight some of this problems: