(Privacy) Check, Please!: The Privacy Implications of QR Code Menus
(Privacy) Check, Please! The Privacy Implications of QR Code Menus There are many habits we now consider the “new normal”. Masks, sanitizer, and awkward Zoom hangouts are just some of the facets of daily life we no longer think twice about. As restaurants open and we can meet outside our screens again, one of the […]
Addictive by Design: How TikTok Keeps You Hooked
Addictive by Design: How TikTok Keeps You Hooked You don’t need me to tell you that TikTok is addictive. Spend a few minutes on the app and you can see how easy it is to fall down a rabbit hole of cute animals, short-form comedy, and innovative DIY. There’s endless content to keep you engaged […]
Sovereignty and Tradition: Indigenous Knowledge & Open Educational Resources
Sovereignty and Tradition: Indigenous Knowledge & Open Educational Resources What’s an OER? With rising publication costs and tuition fees, there is a movement challenging the exclusivity of academic research that contributes to educational inaccessibility. Academic publishing companies charge institutions thousands of dollars to lease the rights to the research that their own faculty and students […]
Digital Tattoo 2021 Welcome!
Digital Tattoo 2021 Welcome! Welcome to the Digital Tattoo Project! We are so excited to welcome you back to another exciting semester at UBC, UofT, or wherever you’re reading from! In case you need a refresher, I’ll be explaining who we are, what we do, and how you can engage with our content. What is […]
Guest Post: Targeted Advertising and Ad Blocking Technologies
Targeted Advertising and Ad Blocking Technologies by Laura Moberg Have you ever wondered if your phone was listening to you? In an episode from their podcast Reply All, Alex Goldman and PJ Vogt investigate the belief many people have that Facebook is listening to us through our devices and using that information to create targeted […]
Guest Post & Quiz: Data Breach: Don’t Let it Get You!
Data Breach: Don’t Let it Get You! by Amruta Phansalker Check out the end of this post for a fun quiz to see if you can spot potential data breaches! We hear of data breach incidents often. But what are they exactly, and why should we worry about them? Did you know that your data […]
Guest Post: Algorithms and the Death of Democratic Discourse
Algorithms & The Death of Democratic Discourse by Christian Koch Our entire digital history tracked— and is still being tracked. Platforms like Google, Facebook, and others collect data from links clicked, time spent on a particular page, whether or not the content is shared, and even the most seemingly inconsequential choices— all to build pictures […]
Guest Post: Chubby Cheeks, Tiny Hands, and Digital Footprints
Chubby Cheeks, Tiny Hands, and Digital Footprints By Kira Vandermeulen We’ve all seen those sweet posts featuring snaps of our friend’s baby with chubby cheeks and little hands. Today, social media is filled with children. This only makes sense: what with kids being so cute, why wouldn’t you Instagram it? However, as it becomes easier […]
Guest Post: Navigating COVID-19 Dashboards
Navigating COVID-19 Dashboards by Kailey Fukushima When COVID-19 arrived in British Columbia, I sought safety in information seeking. In Spring 2020, I visited COVID-19 dashboards several times daily. I experienced near-overwhelming anxiety until I learned to navigate these technologies intentionally. Does my story sound familiar to you? If so, you are certainly not alone. COVID-19 […]
Guest Post: A Clear Cookie Jar: Discussing the Increased Autonomy of Our Digital Privacy
A Clear Cookie Jar: Discussing the Increased Autonomy of Our Digital Privacy by Olivia Done We all have privacy agreement fatigue, often accepting all cookies on browsers and skipping new privacy agreement emails. [1] However, recent changes to EU and Canadian digital privacy laws provide us with more user autonomy over data mining [2], terminology […]
