The Data Detox Challenge

 

 

We all know that familiar feeling of having too much clutter; whether it’s in our physical or mental spaces, it can be hard to function efficiently when we’re weighed down by disorder. For this reason, when the Digital Tattoo student team heard about the Data Detox – an 8 day online challenge to help you clean up years worth of toxic data build-up  – we jumped at the opportunity to test it out. For the next 8 days, follow along with Digital Tattoo contributors Dominique, Victoria, and Elyse, as we offer daily highlights about our anxieties and triumphs in clearing our browser histories, updating our privacy settings, purging our Facebook pictures, and more. You can join in on the challenge, too, by heading over to the Data Detox site. Don’t forget to let us know about your experience in the comments below.

 

Day 1 – Make a fresh start

Today’s challenge is all about gaining a clearer view of what’s out there about us on the public internet, and how to stay in control of it. Victoria provides some insights on her first day’s experience:

Victoria – It’s only day one, and I am stressed out! When I read through what we had to do for this week, I thought it would be easy. I didn’t think I had much of a digital footprint, and I wasn’t too worried about finding anything troublesome about myself. To be honest, I thought the detox would be a piece of cake. Then, it was time to clear my browser history. I’m not sure why that act causes so much anxiety, but the thought of losing all of my saved passwords, autofills, and record of websites I might want to return to is terrifying. I put my big girl pants on and did it anyway, but I can guarantee that I did not want to.

 

Day 2 – Is Google your BFF?

We all use at least one Google product in our daily lives, but have you ever considered how much Google knows about you? Today’s detox challenge allows us to see ourselves the way that Google sees us, through our online activity and collected data. Here are Elyse’s thoughts:

Elyse – Oftentimes we sleepwalk through our online activity, or think we access the Internet less than we actually do. Through viewing my Google Activity, I was able to see an itemized list of not only how much I use the Internet, but what I’m actually using the Internet for. This was a real blow to my conception of my productivity!

The challenge for today was to begin using a different browser with a different search engine. While the overwhelming amount of data that Google collects has always frustrated and concerned me, once faced with the option to utilize a more secure system, I find myself more reluctant to make the change. Suddenly, the thought of having to remember passwords and web pages or searches feels like a daunting task. Despite my hesitation, I know making the switch will only require a small adjustment period that will be overcome by the benefit of ensuring more security in my life online.

 

Day 3 – Detoxing your social media 

For many, social media is a large part of our social lives. However, frequently using many social accounts can create and share a lot of personal digital information. Today’s detox encourages us deep-clean our accounts, which gave Victoria some interesting insights on her social media use:

Victoria – My privacy settings were already set at their suggestions (score 1 for Victoria)! I did notice that a lot of the activity that I do on Facebook is motivated out of solidarity or maintaining friendships. Because of this, it was hard to ‘unlike’ things. “Liking” had become a way of supporting my peers and maintaining friendships that hadn’t been active in a long time. I wonder what would happen if instead of liking posts, I tried to be more present with my friends, and establish more face-to-face connections with people I had gotten out of touch with. Would that change how I conduct myself over social media?

 

Day 4 – Searching and Surfing

Today, Data Detox reminds us that our browser is our portal to the internet, and a major contributor to data build-up. Dominique and Victoria give their thoughts on the browser extensions the detox recommends in order to de-clutter your data:

Dominique – Seeing the data collected on me through the tracking of privacy badger, was enlightening and disheartening. We unknowingly offer up so much more data than we’re willing to give. 

Victoria – I had no idea my browser had a fingerprint – creepy! Panopticlick showed me that I had no protections on my browser. It honestly hadn’t occurred to me that my browser might be tracking things other than my search history. Clearly, I was being naive. It’s nice to know that there are services, and extensions, available to protect your information.

 

Day 5 – Connecting

When detoxing our lives online, we can’t forget our smartphones. Today, the challenge had us look to how and where we create data, how this is collected, and what we can do to stay in control.

Elyse – Because our phones are often attached to our hands (or at least on our person at most times throughout the day), it’s easy to forget that this extension of bodies is actually a computer. On certain days, I may feel as though I have not really been online, only to forget I have been scrolling through Instagram, iMessaging, or using Maps to get where I need to go. Connecting to wifi or bluetooth allows a traceable footprint of where I’ve been and what I’m doing, information that I may not always be willing to share. Today’s exercise encouraged taking the additional steps to protect my privacy over this information. This included deleting my browser history on my smartphone, editing my default location settings, and taking part in today’s challenge, which was to turn off my location on my phone. I’m interested to find out how long I can use my phone without running into a problem of not having location services on, or how I can problem solve these issues without resorting to turning them back on.

 

Day 6 – Cleaning Up

Today we take a look at how many apps we have on our smartphones, and how many of those we regularly use. After all, more apps means more data. Would you consider all of your apps essential, or could you stand to purge a few? Dominique had a harder time than she thought:

Dominique – Day 6 surprised me by how much I store on my phone. When starting this day, I thought I had 39 apps.  At the end of the day, I discovered I have 103 apps. This leaves me in the category of ‘very high exposure’ to data collection. The more apps you have, the more your data builds up, leading to more companies being able to access it. Deleting these apps was harder than I thought.  Not because it was difficult technically to do, but because I found I liked and used many of them.  Out of the 103 apps I was only able to delete 6 apps.  The rest although I use only once a week, I thought they were still worth keeping.

 

Day 7 – Who do they think you are?

Now that we’ve learned different ways data can be collected, Day 7 of the Detox allows us to take a look at why, and what different companies might be doing with this data. Elyse shares some thoughts after completing today’s challenge:

Elyse – Now that my Data Selfie extension has had some time to collect data on my Facebook activity, it has constructed an in-depth “psychometric profile” of me, including my political leanings, religious affiliations, content I like, personality qualities I maintain, and the like. In the few days it has been collecting data on my interactions, the extension displayed an eerily accurate portrait of me. Whether or not I am intentionally sharing data, it proved that there is no passive participation in data collecting social media platforms.

 

Day 8 – Goals

After a full week of Data Detoxing, it’s the last day! Now, the challenge becomes how to turn these new skills into a sustainable lifestyle, where we’re constantly conscious of ways we can detox our digital lives. Here are each of our thoughts on the experience, and how we plan to move forward:

Victoria – I started this module thinking that after 8 days my digital life would be totally cleaned up. I was wrong. I can now see that digital health, much like physical health, must be maintained over time. I am disappointed that I am not magically in control of all of my data again, but it’s similar to the way that I am disappointed that I am not a bodybuilder after 8 days at the gym: life just doesn’t work that way.

Elyse – The final challenge is to get family and friends on board, and spread the word of Data Detox. This not only affords others the opportunity to cleanse their digital lifestyle, but it also makes my new choices easier if those around me are making similar commitments. I’m hopeful and optimistic that these skills and insights I’ve learned will stick. Here’s to the future of enjoying the perks of a cleaner digital life for myself and friends!

Dominique – After completing this Data Detox, I realize I have a problem with how much data I have allowed social media and web browsers to collect on me.  My goal is to detox myself from Facebook, Google, Instagram and Maps at least once a week.