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21st Century life, data collecting, digital devices and gadgets, digital life, kids and privacy, parents and technology

Privacy 2015 Part II: Find Out How Invisible Trackers Collect Your Information

Posted on March 19, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

We hear, over and over, about how people are tracked online. Now we have a way to watch for ourselves and learn. Download Ghostery and let it tell you who is keeping track of your data. When I downloaded it to my computers, it was so amazing that I could not believe my eyes!

Screen Shot 2015-03-19 at 2.57.06 PM — Ghostery identified 4 trackers on Word Press.

The quick install, available for every browser, makes it possible to identify and display any website tracker that is collecting information. As a user moves from website to website the number of trackers changes. It’s amazing, because, despite the fact that I have checked the box in my browser asking sites not to track me … they do.

At first I was skeptical, so I went to the Ghostery website to find out why a company would “out” so many other companies. There’s an enlightening video to watch and lots of information about how and why the company does what it does. Read more on the company’s about page.

If you don’t know much about tracking check out the first post in this series.

Continue reading “Privacy 2015 Part II: Find Out How Invisible Trackers Collect Your Information” →

data collecting, data sharing, digital life, parents and technology, privacy

Privacy 2015 Part I: Parents Can’t Pay Too Much Attention

Posted on March 19, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

It is a given in this age of connected life that our privacy is much diminished, and it does not matter whether we are children or adults. The trick seems to be for each us to make thoughtful decisions about what family members share and, as much as possible, be aware what is shared or collected about us.

For me, this has been an interesting week where privacy and kids’ privacy is concerned, because four distinct events occurred.

Continue reading “Privacy 2015 Part I: Parents Can’t Pay Too Much Attention” →

21st Century life, digital learning, digital life, sharing media, social media

Getting to Know Pinterest: A Parent’s Guide

Posted on February 20, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Pinterest digitizes image collecting, the non-digital activity that lots of us have been doing for years. In a sense Pinterest offers a 21st Century way to bookmark and collect images instead of accumulating pieces of paper. I’m loving it!

Many people spend time looking through magazines and catalogs, identifying images such as the best-looking clothes, interesting plants, comfortable shoes, or pictures with ideas for an upcoming home construction project. An individual cuts out (or tears out) the image and puts it into a folder. I used to have folders (and more folders) filled with images on all sorts of topics, waiting for me to consult. And I used them from time-to-time, especially at the beginning of a project.

Continue reading “Getting to Know Pinterest: A Parent’s Guide” →

21st Century life, digital life, parents and technology, selfies

Collecting Information — Even From Selfies?

Posted on January 30, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

There seems to be a way to collect information about — well — everything.

Nowadays that includes our images and more specifically the selfies that we informally snap and share. Parents of 21st Century digital kids need to know that data mining reaches ever farther into our lives, seeking information from our most spontaneous and casual digital image creating activities.

An October 10, 2014 article in AdWeek, How Marketers Are Mining Your Selfies for Data: Chances are, Without You Knowing, describes how data mining firms collect information on the millions of pictures that are casually uploaded and without privacy settings. Continue reading “Collecting Information — Even From Selfies?” →

21st Century life, digital life, digital parenting, parents and technology

Thanksgiving 2014, Gratitude, and Digital Life

Posted on November 20, 2014November 25, 2014 by Marti Weston

We are about to celebrate Thanksgiving 2014, a time when we give thanks for family, friends, and the richness of our lives. It’s a time for gratitude when most of us take stock and think about how well we live.

As a parent, teacher, and 21st Century learning advocate with a digital parenting focus, I spend much of the year suggesting ways that families, educators, children, and certainly, my students can strategize, enrich, and improve their digitally connected lives. And, of course, we are always attempting to learn enough to avoid potential problems.

But Thanksgiving is different!

Last year at our Thanksgiving 2013 celebration my family took time to consider the many good things that have changed in our 21st Century lives since we now live with so much technology. Each of us came up with a broad range of experiences that changed our lives in positive ways, bringing extra excitement and joy to our lives: experiences for which we are most grateful. Check out my list below. Continue reading “Thanksgiving 2014, Gratitude, and Digital Life” →

21st Century parenting, apps, digital devices, digital life, social media, spelling and editing

New York Times Report on FCC Snapchat Settlement

Posted on May 10, 2014 by Marti Weston

The Federal Communications Commission (FCC) just announced a settlement with Snapchat over questions of privacy and mis-information. New York Times reporter Jenna Wortham published an article, Off the Record in a Chat App: Don’t Be Sure, a May 8, 2014 piece that describes the situation and the terms of the settlement. I’ve written a post, Have A Chat If Your Child Uses Snapchat, with more details at my other blog, Discover Your Child’s Digital World.

Twenty-first century parents — take note.

21st Century parenting, connected learning, digital kids, digital life, family conversations, Internet statistics, parents and technology

Amaze Digital Kids with Internet Statistics!

Posted on February 19, 2014March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Do you wish you could amaze the digital kids in your life with trivia or fun facts about the connected world?

For the past couple of years, the Royal Pingdom site has posted a yearly overview of Internet statistics. The post, Internet 2012 in Numbers, shares some interesting figures, and they will indeed help you amaze the digital natives in your life. Moreover, these statistics can serve as excellent conversation starters and provide good context to help connected learners understand more about the size and scope of the digital world that they take for granted.

Here’s a sampling from the 2012 post. By the end of the year the Internet featured:

425 million active Gmail users
635 million web sites
51 new web sites added during the year
246 million domain name registrations
2.4 billion Internet users and 565 million of them are in China
175 million Tweets per day
40.5 years as the average age of a Facebook user
4 billion hours watched on YouTube per month

Check out the many other stats and some nifty graphs. Remember, though, that the statistics are from 2012. Royal Pingdom has also compiled numbers for 2008, 2009, 2010, and 2011, so you can have some fun comparing and contrasting the numbers from year to year (and watching them grow). The site has not posted statistics for 2013 – at least not yet.