TTC – Taking Control of your Personal Data

•  Discover how your personal data is used without your knowledge.
•  Uncover the backstories of America’s most scandalous data breaches.
•  Learn what you can do to protect your data privacy.

We have never before in human history been able to share so much about ourselves so quickly. Neither have we ever been so exposed to forces that want to take advantage of that capability. The 12 revealing lectures of Taking Control of Your Personal Data will open your eyes to the surprising extent of that exposure and will discuss your options for keeping your personal data as safe as possible. Your instructor, Professor Jennifer Golbeck of the College of Information Studies at University of Maryland, College Park, will show you what really goes on behind the scenes with the data you knowingly and unknowingly share all day long.

 Can They Really Do That?

 As Dr. Golbeck explains in intriguing detail, Europeans are protected by some of the most restrictive privacy laws in the world. In China, at the other extreme, personal data is regularly exploited on many levels. Right now, the United States finds itself somewhere in the middle.

 While your private communication is protected, the Supreme Court has ruled that you give up that right to privacy when you involve a third party. For example, if you discuss the price of a home with your realtor by phone, that information is private. But if you message that same information to the same person via social media, all bets are off. No matter what your privacy settings are, once you’ve used the platform for that conversation, the company that runs that particular forum owns that information to analyze and use as it sees fit.

 Some uses of your data constitute a crime, of course—scams, extortion, fraud, data theft—and the FBI receives more than 900 cybercrime reports each day. But you’ll be surprised to find out how much of your personal data is being manipulated in ways that are perfectly legal—data you never intended for another person to see, even data you didn’t even know was out there. Consider:

• Manipulation of your Facebook world. Facebook wants you to have as many friends as possible, so it analyzes data you didn’t know existed to determine which “non-friends” might have attended the same event. Suddenly, you have a new friend suggestion!
• Targeted television commercials. If you use the same provider for both internet and television services, your browser history is used to determine not only online ad placement, but also which TV commercials you see.
• Broadcasts from your phone. If you have a smart phone, it’s busy collecting vast amounts of data about you and broadcasting it to a variety of receivers. In one experiment, a newspaper columnist working with a technology company discovered that over the course of just one week, 5,400 hidden apps and trackers received personal data from his phone.

 Companies strive to keep your data private when market forces demand it, but, generally, the law does not require it. And even if you do read and sign every privacy policy that comes across your desk or apps, hackers are working hard to stay one step ahead. So, whether legally or illegally, your most private data is likely to be used by unexpected parties, in unexpected ways, at some point in time.