Dear Internet: Tell me, who am I?
On the internet, we are not one person, we are many. We are customers or clients, we are on the move in networks and on platforms, we observe and evaluate, we write and comment. Our digital selves and those of our children are: our messages on WhatsApp, our feelings as emoticons, emojis and likes, our experiences that we share on Instagram, our purchases in online shops, our search queries on Google, our private relationships on Facebook or our business relationships on LinkedIn. We leave traces everywhere in the form of data.
Data is the what and how
There are two types of data: those that show what we do and those that provide information about how we do it. The what is the content; the search terms we enter into Google, for example. But also our address, our shoe size, our hobbies or what music we listen to. We have this data relatively well under control because we actively record it. The how, on the other hand, records when we log in, how much we YouTube or where we are at the moment. It is more difficult to consciously control this. This data comes from our smartphones, for example. The location services in our mobile phones often know exactly where we are - they know where we live, go to school or work and even record the way we move around. Everyday objects are also increasingly fitted with sensors and produce data. This combination of the analogue and digital worlds is known as the «Internet of Things». For example: the fridge that automatically reorders milk or the car that sends a service report to the garage. With so much data, the question inevitably arises: do we still have an overview of where we leave traces? And do we know who is collecting our data?
Show me how you click and I'll tell you who you are
Companies are beginning to use our data to form a picture of us. Insurance companies, health insurers and lenders, for example, are collecting data - and not altruistically. They want to exclude «high risks». In other words, customers for whom they pay more than they get back. But retailers also collect data so that they can, as they say, «adapt their product range to customer needs» and customers are «more satisfied».
So people are at the beginning and end of the data chain. Hardly anyone has an overview. But there is one thing you can do: keep asking yourself: «How do I handle my data? Do I disclose as little as possible? Do I present myself as positively as possible? Or do I reveal as much as possible - true and false - so that my profile remains diffuse? And what does my digital behaviour say about me?» The discussion about this remains exciting. And it trains our children to be critical, to scrutinise things, to discuss and decide for themselves. Data is an excellent way to practise this. Again and again.
The new guide to digital media, «enter», provides background information on topics that concern parents and children today: Role models, navigating the flood of information, big data and thinking for yourself instead of just copying.
