I have always thought the Google
search function that “autocompletes” your search was extremely cool, but until
it became relevant in my mini-ethnography, I never really thought too much
about it. I am studying pro-anorexia and eating disorder websites, and it was
through this tool that the popularity and prominence of these sites was made
clear to me. To find what is known as a “pro-ana” website, I simply need to
type in “How to be an” and it fills in “anorexic.” While I don’t want to get
too far into the implications of this now (I’ll wait for my ethnography to do
that) I wanted to explore how Google’s “Autocomplete” works in a little more
detail.
It
didn’t take much digging (and I wasn’t surprised) to learn that Google uses
your web-history, search history, and your personal Google+ profile to come up
with many of these suggestions. Also predominant is the use of frequent queries
of users internationally in suggestions. What I find especially interesting is
that some of these suggestions can be, and sometimes are, tailored to your
nationality or even a more specific demographic into which you fall. Does this
mean that as an American, 15 – 25 year old woman, I am quicker to receive the
“How to be anorexic” suggestion more easily than my male counterpart? That is
in fact, the demographic that has the highest prevalence for eating disorders;
because others within my same demographic are more disposed to search for this,
does that then slide into this algorithm for autocompletes in Google searches?
I
could not find any answers to these questions, but in searching, I did discover
many of the controversies surrounding privacy on the Internet especially to do
with tracking websites visited and topics searched. I well remember when targeted
ads on Facebook and Pandora first alarmed people and surprised them with their
accuracy at times. (I do however, occasionally get what seem to be incredibly irrelevant
ads – on Pandora, I frequently hear ads for newborn care!). Regardless of
relevance and perhaps also of the convenience, I think I will next be learning
how to turn off these search tracking aps!
It's not just Google that extensively stores and analyzes searches and web history, but also its counterpart Chrome. If you have ever used Chrome, it syncs to your account and uses web history as a source of data input. Of course, many people think the way around this is using Incognito (or private browsing on Firefox). However, while data is not physically stored onto your personal computer, websites still are capable of storing data from your visits via your IP. This eventually also becomes rerouted to third parties and used to advertise relevant information.
ReplyDeleteMy lil brother is quite involved in various... morally gray online activities so the issue of privacy is very important for him. For regular web browsing, he uses DuckDuckGo.com as an alternative search engine that doesn't store search data. For more delicate matters, you can use Tor, a self-encrypting web browser that is secure. However, it is quite slow...
There was someone who once said that the most valued commodity in the future will be privacy, followed living space. I think we're definitely approaching the era where privacy is becoming more and more scarce.
I have was uneasy when I began seeing ads targeted specifically to my search on facebook or other sites. Even more so, when facebook kept telling me that Ohio needed my vote for Obama. I can only imagine that by combining facebook and google data, "the internet" will soon know a lot about us.
ReplyDeleteInterestingly enough, when I type in "How to be an" it fills in "extreme couponer." Perhaps, my internet searches show that I am frugal :)
I like ixquick.com for a private search engine. Firefox unfortunately still collects data. I haven't found a web browser yet that's totally private... I guess you get to decide who you want to give your information to. It might all end up in the same places.
ReplyDeleteIt's pretty insane that you can search "how to be anorexic." But then, once we start restricting web searches and sites, where does it end? With regards to anorexia, it is interesting to see how, as a disorder it used to be very rare, but then more recently became popular, and because of its popularity in the US has become popular other places. There is an interesting book:: "Crazy Like Us" by Ethan Watters about how US mental health disorders are spreading all throughout the world. I highly recommend it for a critical take on the social construction of mental illness and the impact of globalization. Good luck with your research!