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data collecting, data sharing, digital life, online tracking, parents and technology

Do You Really Understand How Much You Are Tracked in Your Web Activities?

Posted on July 31, 2019July 31, 2019 by Marti Weston

When we use Chrome, Google’s tracking cookies follow us everywhere, and the video below perfectly illustrates how these trackers operate in our digital lives. It was produced by Washington Post technology columnists, Geoffrey A. Fowler and James Pace-Cornsilk.

Enjoy watching, but also ask yourself how much of your personal data and your daily activities you want to share with these trackers? Moreover, how much of your children’s data do you want these cookies to collect? In a connected world, digital life is complicated as is personal privacy.

This video appears in a Post article, Google’s Data Collection Drives Some Consumers Away, by Greg Bensinger.

FYI, I have stopped using Chrome completely (I use Duck Duck Go as a browser), and I am migrating to an email that I pay a small fee for each month. To learn more about what I use you may want to read two past MediaTech Parenting posts.

How Much Privacy Do I Have? Duck Duck Go Gives More

More on Using Duck Duck Go & My Extra Bit of Privacy

21st Century life, online data collecting, parents and technology, personal data, privacy, tips and tricks

My Need For Google Decreases Each Time My Privacy Feels Threatened

Posted on May 25, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

I’ve written before about the growing loss of privacy in our 21st Century lives.

Just about everything we do these days creates data that can be collected by someone. Found on Pixabay.

Now, after reading the Washington Post article Google Now Knows When Its Users Go to the Store to Buy Stuff, I am even more concerned about privacy. Fellow blog readers, you should be too.

In essence, Google is now using credit card data, to combine with the data it has already collected about us, to learn more about our purchases — those made online and those we purchase without any online connection. The goal, according to Washington Post reporters Elizabeth Dwoskin and Craig Timberg, is to discover whether Google ’s searches and its advertisements have helped people decide what to buy — even when a purchase isn’t made online.

The company continues to collect data and learn more and more about people of all ages. That’s creepy. It feels even more creepy when I consider how we use Gmail in my family to share calendars and when I look at the Google Dashboard that keeps track of and shares with me some of the data Google has collected about us.

Most Interesting Quote From the Article Continue reading “My Need For Google Decreases Each Time My Privacy Feels Threatened” →

21st Century life, 21st Century teaching, choosing reliable resources, credibility, democracy and digital life, digital kids, digital life, evaluating news, fake news, parents and technology, raising digital kids, teaching digital kids

How Are You Helping Kids Learn About MediaLit & Fake News? Progress?

Posted on April 10, 2017March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

Screen Shot 2017-04-09 at 9.30.15 PM — Check out Google’s new fact check feature.

Teachers all over the country are sharing ideas about how to help their students identify news that is made-up, unsubstantiated, or just plain false. Now Google has added a feature that identifies false information that comes up on user searches. An April 7, 2017 article at the Pointer Journalism site describes Google’s new fact check in detail and explains how the company went about developing its new feature. You can also read the CNET article about Google.

I’ve been delighted by the articles, such as Five Ways Teachers Are Fighting Fake News, an NPR education article that describe how three teachers are incorporating media literacy activities into their curriculum. Plenty of other similar reports have appeared in various media. I hope that, somewhere, there is an organization that is archiving as many teacher ideas as possible. Continue reading “How Are You Helping Kids Learn About MediaLit & Fake News? Progress?” →

data collecting, media literacy, media messages, parents and technology, searching

Your News, My News – Do We Get the Same Views?

Posted on December 7, 2016December 7, 2016 by Marti Weston

According to a video shared by the DuckDuckGo website, when we search for information on Google each of us can get slightly different, or sometimes enormously different results – even if we use the exact search terms in the exact order and at about the same time. DuckDuckGo, a search engine that emphasizes privacy, is a Google competitor.

The order of Google’s results may guided by what it knows about the individual who is doing the search. (Check out Ghostery to identify trackers on any or all of your pages.)

Collected information – including any previous searches, where we live, what we read, where we get our news, what we purchase, how much we travel, and much more can affect what we see in the results. I never thought about this much, but I do remember how a few years ago a group of my middle school students were searching on Google for information, and I noticed and was puzzled that similar searches sometimes generated lists of slightly different results. Continue reading “Your News, My News – Do We Get the Same Views?” →

21st Century life, digital life, parents and technology, teens and finance

When It Comes to Check Writing “The Times Are A’ changin”

Posted on April 28, 2015March 17, 2019 by Marti Weston

With thanks to the Deviant Art blog, http://theinfamousj.deviantart.com

People of a certain age write checks. People of a much younger certain age, mainly millennials don’t, instead using their mobile phones for most of their financial transactions.

It would be hard to find an elder who cannot write a check, and most aging children still write them, albeit far less frequently. Some parents have given a check to their millennial young adult, only to have their child carry it around in a wallet for weeks and weeks rather than cashing it.

Now according to Washington Post Wonkblog writer, Christopher Ingraham, how to write a check is a big search item on Google. Continue reading “When It Comes to Check Writing “The Times Are A’ changin”” →

21st Century life, digital kids, digital life, educating digital natives, parents and technology

Has Your Child Grown Up With Google? Check Out This Article

Posted on April 16, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Ever so often adults are reminded that the world where we grew up is dramatically different from the world where our 21st Century children live, learn, and grow. What is new and different for parents and educators is merely routine to digital kids.

Over at the TeachThought blog I discovered an interesting article about the dramatic life changes that have occurred during the first 16 years of Google’s existence (dramatic to adults, that is). The author uses Google as a yardstick to measure the ways the world has changed during those 16 years, Click on the box below to read the whole article.

Continue reading “Has Your Child Grown Up With Google? Check Out This Article” →

21st Century life, digital learning, parents and technology

So What Else Can Google Do?

Posted on March 11, 2015March 18, 2019 by Marti Weston

Did you know that, besides searching, Google can carry out a variety of simple tasks in daily life — making 21st Century connected life easier or at least a bit quicker? Amaze your children or students by trying out and sharing a few of these Google bells and whistles. A few of the tasks may also support learning activities.

Use Google as a timer by typing set time to 24 minutes.
Find a movie release by typing the name of the movie and the word release: e.g., Second Best Exotic Marigold Hotel release.
Check out the sunrise and sunset times by typing sunrise in [town or city].
Get the weather forecast by typing forecast [town or city].
Get a definition by typing define [word here].
Figure out a tip by typing tip calculator.
Get songs by groups you like by typing songs by the [group name].
Convert measurements by typing convert and the units that you want to convert to: e.g., convert 3 yards to meters.
Find books by a certain author by typing books by [author’s name].
Get a definition by typing define [word here].