SSC 101 Week 11 Discussion: Internet Age Issues

Discussion Prompt:

Please write ONE post responding to the questions below. You must complete ALL parts.

Part 1: In Chapter 8 of The Information Literacy User’s Guide: An Open, Online TextbookLinks to an external site., the authors outline an exercise (p. 106), “Observing the Visual Landscape.”  Do this exercise. Follow the search prompt that they give and then reflect on the three questions that they list (also posted below).

Part 2: Think about what we learned this week about personalization and privacy online. Online advertisers (and the companies that make money by providing them with data about you) argue that they collect information about you only in order to provide you with better-targeted ads that are more relevant to you, personally. Some questions to consider:

• • Do you perceive any harm in targeted advertising?
  • Is it unethical for companies to track people online for advertising purposes? Would your answer change if the companies doing such tracking were to ask the users’ permission ahead of doing any tracking?
  • Which bits of your personal information are more valuable to you? Which bits do you think advertisers might value most?
  • Do you believe that our legislators should pass new laws to protect privacy, given the new technologies and products that now collect information about us? Or should individuals bear the responsibility of protecting their own privacy? In your experience, do most people understand the way in which their information is accessed, collected, or otherwise used online?

Part 3: Please think back over all the material we’ve covered this quarter, including the different types of sources, ways to search them, and information issues we’ve thought about. Write a reflection that identifies the 2-3 most useful things that you learned from the course material.