Blog Post 4

Ultimately, it is up to the user how much privacy or personalization they prefer. Depending on what the individual finds most important, that is how they determine what kind of privacy settings they choose. Everyone has different opinions on what kind of information should be accessible to websites or even on your own personal computer. These opinions are described as being privacy fundamentalists, privacy concerned, or privacy pragmatists. With the internet today, it seems as every move we make is being monitored. From our social media accounts being scattered with adds based on our recent searches to our Netflix homepage suggestions due to our latest show choices. Although these preferences are used to make our lives easier it's hard to trust it all when our computer seems to know more about ourselves than we do. As most of us know it is not smart to disclose any type of financial or very personal information onto any website but what about basic info such as lifestyle or demographics? According to Kobsa, research has found 63% of people have provided false information due to privacy insecurities. And I will openly admit to doing this as well. One question I have about privacy is, where does all this information go and where is its final destination? How is it filtered and monitored and when will personalization finally come to a reasonable stopping point. Is the information I give out really only going to the specific website like they say, or is it accessible to a much broader interface? I never feel totally secure putting my information on the internet because I'm always unsure where it's floating around but in today's society it seems inescapable.