The internet plays a large role in our lives today. We're in an era where Google is where many of us go to find reliable information. We communicate online with other people on social media sites like Twitter, Snapchat, and Discord. As of late with the pandemic, a lot of people are doing most of their shopping online with Amazon and other sites. With everything we do online, companies find and keep our information and sell them to advertisers. They make assumptions about who we are and this leads to us getting certain ads. For every app you download or social media you join, they have lengthy contracts talking about how they will use your information. Most people do not read them and the terms of conditions change often. Amazon's Alexia records you even when you aren't talking to it. The videos we talked about this described it as an electronic tattoo. Once we do something online, it is up there forever.
I remember when I turned 18, I got a lot of provocative ads on YouTube. It felt like they were waiting for the right time to get me involved in sex. I remember back in high school I would make a lot of sex jokes with my friends and these ads crossed the line for me. I didn't mean much of the stuff I would say, but whoever was listening assumed I was serious. That doesn't make me comfortable, having everything I say being recorded and planted on me forever. After hearing about Google Chrome and how it gets ahold of my info with cookies, I downloaded Opera. It's a bit early to say it has yielded great results in protecting me, but I feel safer.
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