Learning Journal 3

     The past readings have been things I already kind of new about but it has provided me more insight and stress on variables that I never have thought of. One thing that I did find interesting was the part of Google and their branch of keywords/phrases. I never really thought that so many words can be traced to different genres and I guess that is why google is a top company. Being able to take all that data that they collect and being able to apply it in unique searches and even recommend certain sites based on usage and traffic is immense. They track so much data to even the type of device you are on! Many of these companies focus on traffic. Facebook, Twitter, Snapchat want to be able to monitor all the traffic and your personal data to better apply customization techniques. They claim that this allows them to cater more to each user but this data seems to benefit them as well.  

    Many people don't know this but there has been many security data breaches all across popular sites that we use. The "we are data" shows how much a company collect from us. This can also be a harm. I suggest that just as we have health inspectors and many other kinds of government monitoring agencies, we can add a division that ensures protection on sensitive data. This may be hard to accomplish as it is more of a gray area than black and white. I definitely would not be using social media sites that are newer until I know their data is secure. Companies like facebook had a big data breach but with the way Congress handled it last time. I am confident that it won't happen again. If facebook were to acquire a different company, I would feel safe enough to use that company. 

    Overall many people need to be careful on what kind of information they store on someone's website. At the end of the day when you "save payment methods" (and other things in that nature) on a website, you are allowing them to keep that information. It is like telling a friend they can hold on to your credit card in case they need to borrow money again. If you trust them, you know no one else will know your credit card information. I look it as the same concept with the websites I trust.