MCO 425

It’s so easy to use your phone as you please, and not think about how your information might be being used. Let’s analyze my typical weekend media schedule and see if someone with a media schedule like mine should pay more attention to how they exchange their data:

10:30am: I wake up, make myself breakfast, and check my emails as I do so. If I notice any repetitive or unwanted emails, I go and unsubscribe from them.

11:45am: As I wrap up my breakfast, I check my Instagram and YouTube very briefly. Both sites required an email/phone number to log in. Typically on Instagram, I find myself looking at posts regarding hair care. This causes me to receive more ads for different hair products, and fill my feed with hair care videos. For YouTube, since I watch a lot of religious content, my feed will usually fill up with videos about religion. When I started to listen to The Joe Rogan Experience when he has Pres. Donald Trump on his podcast, my feed began to fill with content with other podcasters who had Pres. Trump on their show.

1:00pm: I log into “My ASU” to begin working on my assignment for the day. Every now and then My ASU requires a two-factor authentication in order to log in. It is the same when it comes to logging into my school email.

3:00pm: Once I’m done with my assignments, I log into my workout app to begin my workout. Then I turned on Spotify, which also required an email. When I listen to certain playlists more often than others, I will notice that spotify will create other playlists that fit in the same genre as the playlist I listen to the most. I also notice that the same songs will get recommended on other music apps I use.

4:00pm: If I find myself way too tired after my workout, I will use Instacart to get groceries. Instacart tends to keep track of the food I order, and will recommend similar foods to me later on. Instacart would also save my previous order and ask if I’d want to place an automatic order with the same groceries. 

9:00pm: Before I go to sleep, I search online to find a professional camera. A particular website I looked at was Cute Camera Soon after that, I began to receive ads on Instagram from Cute Camera the next day.

Overall, It seems as if my phone knows me a little too much. I find it really interesting that one app might know my interests based on what content I consume on another. At that point, it doesn’t really seem like there is much more I can do to prevent that from happening. But if I were to try anything, regularly clearing out my history might be the best place to start, or perhaps get a VPN.