ITU/SFL PROFICIENCY EXAM January 8, 2015

SESSION II

Protecting the Information You Put on the Internet

If you remember the 1990s, the first decade of the Internet, you know the Internet was a static
place. When you went online, you looked at web pages that had been set up by professionals. The
professionals put the information there, and, except for the occasional update, it rarely changed.
However, due to the rise of social media in the early 2000s, the Internet changed completely. It became
a place where most of the content that we interact with is posted by average users on sites like
YouTube, product reviews and social media posts. As a result, the Internet is now an interactive place.
Internet users do not just read web pages anymore; they interact with other people, make comments,
and share many things.

Facebook is not the only place where people interact, but it is the biggest. 1.2 billion people use
Facebook every month. That means half of the world’s 2.4 billion Internet users post on Facebook at
least once a month. Facebook allows people to interact online with little technical skill, and people use
this site to put lots of personal data online. The result is that computer scientists like me have large
amounts of personal data for over one billion people. This has never happened before in history. I can
predict many things about Internet users because of the data they put online. What I want to talk to you
about today is how much computer scientists can understand about Internet users by examining the
data they put online and what can be done to help people protect themselves.

Let me begin with one striking example about how much people’s Internet habits reveal about
them. Have you ever heard of Target? It is a large American department store, and it sends out ads
based on people’s Internet buying habits. Recently, a 15-year-old girl received advertisements by post
for baby bottles, baby clothes and other baby products. The ads were mailed to her home before the
young lady had told her parents that she was pregnant. Her dad was really upset. He said, "How did
Target learn that my daughter was going to have a baby before she told us, her parents?" It turns out
that Target has the Internet purchase history of hundreds of thousands of customers. By using people’s
purchase data, they can accurately predict if someone is pregnant. Target does not just use obvious
clues like buying baby clothes. They also consider less obvious clues, like buying vitamins or large
handbags. By tracking purchases such as vitamins and big handbags, Target can accurately predict if a
woman is pregnant. As a result, Target might know your family member or close friend is pregnant
before you do.

Your Internet habits reveal many more things than you are aware of. In my work as a computer
scientist, my colleagues and I have developed programs that can predict your political preference, your
intelligence, and even how strong your relationships are. Did you know that your Internet habits reveal
your political views, your IQ and the closeness of your relationships? We can predict these things by
making use of sources that you might not expect. My favorite example of an unexpected source of
information is from a study that looked at people’s Facebook “likes”. The study found the five Facebook
likes that best predicted high intelligence. One of those likes was for curly French Fries, you know, those
French Fries which are curly instead of straight. What is the connection between liking curly French
Fries and being smarter than the average person? The reason is explained by a sociological theory
called homophily. This theory is based on research which shows that people are friends with people
similar to them. If you're smart, you tend to have smart friends, and if you work as a professional, you
ITU/SFL PROFICIENCY EXAM January 8, 2015
SESSION II

tend to have friends who work as professionals. According to the homophily theory, a smart guy
probably started the curly French Fries page. His friends liked it, and then their friends liked it, so this
page spread among intelligent people. In the end, liking the curly French Fries page indicated high
intelligence, not because there’s any connection between smartness and curly French Fries, but
because people who like the page have similar characteristics to other people who like it.

I hope that these examples show how much you are revealing about yourself online, and I hope
you are now wondering how you can protect the data you share online. Do you realize what I could do
with this information? I could quit my job as a computer scientist and start a company that predicts
things like how well you work in teams and whether or not you're a drug user. I could sell my reports to
big companies that are thinking about hiring you, and they might not give you a job because I predicted
you would not get on well with colleagues, or that you might be using drugs. Right now, you have
absolutely no control over my selling data about you to anyone who would like it. So, what can be done
to limit people using your personal data?

One way to protect users is for politicians to make new laws. In some ways, this seems effective
because politicians have enough power to change the Internet system since they regulate the Internet.
They could pass laws about who can use your data and who can’t. The major problem is that when
politicians make laws that protect your data they might also limit your freedoms. I believe politicians
often pass laws that restrict freedoms too much, so I do not think it would be a good decision to have
them make laws about what your data can and cannot be used for.

Another way to protect your data is to educate yourself about the dangers of social sites like
Facebook. You should learn about the risk involved in sharing information. You should know that by
liking a Facebook page or by sharing a piece of personal information, you've now improved someone’s
ability to predict whether or not you get along well in the workplace. If you know the possible effects of
sharing something, I think you will make better choices about whether you want to share it or not. We
can also teach simple techniques to encrypt data which is put on the Internet. Encrypting data means
putting it in a code, and then only the people you want to see it can access it. If you encrypt your data,
it’s like it is invisible and sites like Facebook cannot benefit from it. I definitely think that’s a much better
solution than having politicians pass laws about how data on the Internet can be used.

Whenever I talk about how people can protect their data, someone asks how educating Internet
users will affect my career. They point out that if people become educated Internet users, I will no longer
be able to get their data and predict their behaviors. But for me, that is success because my goal is not
to get information about Internet users but rather to improve how people interact online. I want users to
be informed and to know what information they are sharing. I think taking control away from social
media companies and giving control back to users is a big step forward. I hope someday we have
educated users who understand what they are sharing. Isn’t it the ideal way to go forward? Thanks for
listening.
ITU/SFL PROFICIENCY EXAM January 8, 2015
SESSION II

NOTE-TAKING GUIDE
Take notes using the headings below while listening to the lecture called Protecting the Information You
Put on the Internet. You will hear the lecture ONLY ONCE.

Introduction – Changes in the Internet

How Target follows your Internet habits

Other things that can be learned from your Internet habits

curly French Fries

“homophily”
ITU/SFL PROFICIENCY EXAM January 8, 2015
SESSION II

Protecting your personal data

 What can be done with your data now

 One way to protect it

 Another way to protect it

“encrypt”

How educating Internet users may affect the lecturer