WhaleSlide’s Data Detox — Day 4
We hope you’re enjoying our week of Data Detox blogs — today marks day 4 of the detox and we’re nearing the end of our digital journey. If you’re joining us part way through, be sure to catch up on days 1, 2 and 3!
Today’s detox takes a look at phone apps, and data profiling.
Cleaning up your apps
We’ve all heard of a juice cleanse but how many of us have ever done an app cleanse? Apps collect and produce huge amounts of data, so it goes without saying that the more apps you have on your smartphone, the more data you are giving away. It can be daunting trying to decide which apps to keep and which to delete but have you ever really used that wine-rating app? You may have had the best of intentions but realistically are you going to learn that new language using those apps you downloaded last January? You can only focus on so much at once, and too many apps clogging up your phone and constantly sending annoying notifications will just stress you out in the long run.
Take a long, hard critical look at your apps and ask yourself: do you really need it? When did you last use it? How much and what kind of data does it collect? Are you comfortable sharing that data with the app (do they have a trustworthy and transparent privacy policy)? Is there a better app out there — perhaps combining two apps you already have to save space/data? Is the benefit you get from the app worth the data trade off? And finally, once again, do you REALLY need it?
Delete any apps that don’t pass these tests. If you never use it and can’t remember why you downloaded it in the first place, why give it your precious data which can be sold to other companies? As for the apps you need and want to keep, you can still exercise some control over how much data you share through them— you can limit this under privacy on an iPhone and under settings → apps on an Android phone.
You can also consider some privacy-friendly alternatives to everyday apps such as Facebook Messenger and Skype. Head to myshadow.org/appcentre to find out more.
Data Profiling
We often talk about how companies such as Facebook and Google track you online and collect your personal data in order to create targeted adverts (you should know by now that we don’t do this!). However, this behaviour doesn’t just stop at adverts. Some companies known as ‘data brokers’ make their fortune by buying data and selling profiles, which can include a scary amount of personal information and has far-reaching consequences outside of mere targeted advertising for that pair of trainers you looked up last week (or the flights to Mexico in the summer you definitely can’t afford).
Facebook has been exposed as permitting advertisers to exclude certain racial groups from adverts about housing and jobs, and to allow ‘anti-semites’ as a target audience. This is clearly racist, prejudicial, and has no place in the kind of tech world we would like to see flourishing in the future. That’s why we advocate no tracking, no ads, and fair and impartial search results from our search engine. Peace, love, fairness and privacy — it’s not much to ask is it?
Data profiling can even have financial consequences — car insurer Admiral worked on an app for new drivers to predict their driving style from their social media posts; negative factors meaning you would be a less safe driver included using excessive punctuation and “confident” language such as the words ‘always’ and ‘never’. Thankfully, the app was ditched at the last minute — though it does remind us of the company Lenddo which we wrote about in last week’s introductory blog.
We hope today’s detox has been useful and that you feel cleansed. Tomorrow’s blog will give you some tips on how to remain in control of your ‘data self’ in the future so that you can create a privacy-conscious sustainable digital lifestyle.
Let us know how you’re getting on with our week-long Data Detox Series and tweet us with the hashtag #WhaleslideDataDetox.
