Hashing out the hashtag

By Michelle Ghoussoub on June 4, 2014 | Tagged with #BringBackOurGirls, #YesAllWomen, Hashtag, Social media

Following a horrific shooting in Santa Barbara, that left seven students dead and over a dozen injured, news of the massacre spread on social media like wildfire. In the days that followed, it was uncovered that the shooter had a YouTube channel dedicated to promoting misogynistic ideas, and had left a deep Internet archive documenting hateful and disturbing tendencies. This discovery shifted on and offline conversations of the incident from gun control and mental health to a more overarching discussion of the everyday sexism and misogyny that runs rampant and often unchecked in societies worldwide.

Source: Twitter

Women around the world took to Twitter to share their stories, mobilizing through the #YesAllWomen hashtag – a catchphrase designed to counter the #NotAllMen trend often used to discount complaints about misogyny. Within four days the hashtag had drawn over 1.2 million tweets, with women expressing their grievances and experiences with harassment, fear, and even violence.

The #YesAllWomen hashtag effectively spurred a conversation many had wanted to initiate for years. The shocking prevalence of the stories shared spoke to the universality of the themes addressed, in a sense crowdsourcing the construction of a vocabulary for discussing feminism in the 21^st century. Often a sidelined and quickly dismissed issue, #YesAllWomen pushed discussions of misogyny into the mainstream. The conversation became virtually impossible to ignore as journalists and social commentators alike began to cover the trend, moving the conversation from social media to more traditional news sources. Within hours, three simple words preceded by a # effectively gave voice to a conversation decades in the making.

The use of hashtags as centerpieces for framing discussions of social issues is a relatively new, but increasingly recurring phenomenon in the world of social media. In December 2013 the #NotYourAsianSidekick hashtag served as a powerful rallying point to discuss the stereotypes and discrimination often faced by Asian-Americans. Several months earlier, the #SolidarityIsForWhiteWomen hashtag sparked a discussion of the ways women of color are presented and discussed by mainstream media outlets.

Hashtags have not only been used to frame discussions and bring light to previously ignored issues. Increasingly, they are being used as tools to promote awareness, and to pressure politicians into taking action. A prominent example of this trend arose in April 2014. Following the kidnapping of 300 Nigerian schoolgirls by Boko Haram, the hashtag #BringBackOurGirls gained major traction in Nigeria, before crossing the Atlantic and trending in the United States. Celebrities and politicians alike (including the Obamas themselves) were quick to jump on the hashtag train, posting the phrase on their social media pages.

Another prime example of hashtag-driven activism has centered on the plight of journalists unjustly detained for doing their jobs. During the Egyptian revolution in January 2011, prominent journalist and activist Mona Eltahawy was beaten and detained by the Ministry of Interior. Able to tweet her location before her belongings were confiscated, news of her arrest quickly spread to her thousands of Twitter followers, who began the #FreeMona hashtag pressuring the Egyptian government to release her. Eltahawy eventually went free, and cites that as a freelance journalist with no news organization backing her up, the Twitter community that rallied around the #FreeMona hashtag is what saved her.

A similar situation is currently in play. After several Al Jazeera English staff members were detained in Egypt, the #FreeAJStaff hashtag was promoted by journalists and citizens around the globe. While ongoing, the campaign has thus far failed to produce any concrete results.

Viral hashtags have not only centered on political and social issues. Others have simply gone viral because they are humorous, or simply too dramatic to ignore. Justine Sacco, ironically a high-profile PR executive, tweeted a blatantly racist message shortly before boarding an international flight to Cape Town. Soon afterwards, her offensive joke began to spread on Twitter. The #HasJustineLandedYet hashtag eventually trended worldwide, as Sacco remained blissfully unaware of the firestorm of anger she would face upon landing. The event ended with Sacco deleting her account, issuing a public apology, and being fired from her job.

What is it that makes hashtags such effective rallying points? Conversely, while hashtags provide an efficient and low cost mechanism through which to spread a message, what are their limitations in bringing about social awareness and change?

The ease with which messages can be spread via social media is simultaneously the medium’s strength and weakness. The facility and speed with which tweets can be sent out means that there is very little opportunity cost involved in doing so. It is now easier than ever to become involved in global discussions and campaigns of social issues. The double edged sword of this open-ended involvement is that it has also facilitated the rise of “slacktivism,” a trend wherein individuals participate in social campaigns online – by tweeting or posting a picture, for example – without contributing any meaningful change on the ground. While the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag has faded from the headlines and from most twitter feeds, the kidnapped girls have not been returned to their families. The #FreeMona hashtag may have contributed to liberating Mona Eltahawy amid the chaos of the Egyptian revolution, however Al Jazeera journalists detained in Egypt under a much more consolidated state have yet to be freed. Indeed, the liquid potential of a hashtag to bring about concrete change is still being tested.

Hashtags also face limitations in their simplicity. Messages being spread via a few keywords have the potential to quickly be manipulated and distorted. While the #BringBackOurGirls hashtag brought awareness to the plight of the 300 schoolgirls, it was also used to promote the idea of an American military intervention in Nigeria – a cause strongly opposed by the grassroots Nigerian activists who originally began the online campaign. Similarly, Ramaa Mosley, an American film director and documentarian, gave several high-profile interviews in which she claimed to have launched the campaign. While Twitter’s analytics’ tools quickly disproved this rumor by demonstrating that the hashtag was created in Nigeria, Mosley’s attempt to hijack the campaign in order to promote her own for-profit documentary exemplifies a dangerous tendency for online movements to be derailed.

As for #YesAllWomen, what is the future of the viral hashtag? For now, the trend has served to enable and frame a conversation about the everyday sexism faced by millions of people worldwide. While the trend has no leader or concrete objective, discussion for discussion’s sake is not in vain. As for the power of hashtags to bring about meaningful change and empower “netizens” around the world, the true potential of the tool remains to be seen.

Censorship versus Privacy: the implications of the “right to be forgotten”

By Michelle Ghoussoub on May 21, 2014 | Tagged with

Can a digital tattoo be temporary? A groundbreaking court case out of Europe may be redefining the boundaries shaping online identity. Google’s recent decision to respect the “right to be forgotten” has triggered a debate spotlighting the intersection of freedom of speech, censorship, and privacy rights.

The case was initially introduced by Mario Costeja Gonzalez, a Spanish businessman irked that a Google search for his name still turned up a 1998 newspaper article detailing his past financial woes, despite the fact that his debts had been paid off years before. A Spanish court referred his case to the Court of Justice of the European Union in Luxembourg, which ruled in favor of the complaint. The historic decision determined that search engines do indeed have a duty to ensure that data deemed “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” does not appear in their results. In a more sweeping ruling, the court also declared that ordinary citizens have a right to request that search engines remove links to sites that may provide excessive personal data about them.

The controversial ruling triggered a firestorm of debate, and has pitted freedom of speech advocates against champions of online privacy. For those concerned primarily with privacy, the landmark decision places unprecedented autonomy into the hands of private citizens, allowing them to manage their online reputation and protect their personal data to an unparalleled degree. However, advocates of freedom of speech have been quick to decry the decision as a potential mechanism through which freedom of speech may be abused. Many have raised concerns that forcing Google to remove certain links from their search results is in fact a dangerous act of censorship, especially if groups who could potentially profit from this clause are able to effectively block access to certain information.

The terms “inadequate, irrelevant or no longer relevant” are both sweeping in scope and arbitrary in their definition. For the moment, it remains unclear how Google plans on defining these terms, and addressing the takedown requests that have since flooded its servers.

What are the implications of enabling the ability to alter the search results associated with your name? Much of the debate appears to center around the terms used to define the process. While “managing” and “editing” imply granting greater freedom to individuals, terms such as “censoring” and “controlling” suggest a world in which access to information is obstructed.

Further questions arise when the “right to be forgotten” begins to infringe on “the right to know.” While the removal of some content may follow through logically in terms of relevance – such as the Spanish businessman still associated with past debts long since paid off – what are the implications of erasing content that may have consequences for our safety? Allowing victims of revenge porn and cyber bullying, who are often unprotected by domestic legislation, to disassociate themselves from slanderous content, would provide them with an opportunity to reclaim their identity online. However, if an individual is seeking to restrict access to information associating them with a past of violence or corruption, the lines become slightly blurred. Furthermore, when one considers the possibility that private companies or sovereign states could gain the ability to tweak search engine results, the “right to be forgotten” begins to sound like an excerpt from George Orwell’s dystopian novel 1984, where the feared “Ministry of Truth” could decide which facts were acceptable.

Given the diversity of takedown requests, Google may have to operate on a case-by-case basis when determining whether links should be removed. Given the amount of information available about the average individual online, along with the sheer number of languages and platforms through which information is shared, processing removal requests will require a massive mobilization of resources on the part of Google. The potentially massive information backlog has led some to suggest that the tech company take an “all or nothing” approach for maximum efficiency. This would mean that individuals would simply be erased completely from search results, rather than having the option to nitpick which links they would like removed.

However, given the importance of personal branding online, disappearing completely from search results may be more harmful to your image than one unflattering link. Should this option be the only one made available, individuals may be faced with the prospect of picking the lesser of two evils. At the end of the day, what is more detrimental: having an imperfect image online, or a nonexistent one?

While no comparable cases have been recorded in Canada, it is only a matter of time before the debate reaches North America. Should similar legislation be initiated domestically, there may be concrete implications for the identity of Canadians online.

What are your thoughts on the “right to be forgotten” debate? Should controlling your search results be a fundamental right, or is it an act of censorship? Share your thoughts below!

UBC Snaps: the appeal of “disappearing” media

By Michelle Ghoussoub on May 13, 2014 | Tagged with Attention, facebook, Network Smarts, privacy, Snapchat, Social media, UBC

If you’re a UBC student with a Facebook account, you’ve likely already perused the UBC Compliments and UBC Confessions pages, and perhaps even made an anonymous contribution of your own.

Given the exponential rise of Snapchat, a disappearing-photo sharing app, it is no surprise that UBC Snaps is the latest in a series of anonymous, community aggregated Facebook pages to pop up online. Since early March the page has garnered over 3000 likes, with nearly 300 screenshots of Snaps being submitted anonymously by UBC students. Common submissions include scenic shots of campus, stealthy lecture hall pictures, and countless hashtags expressing the woes of exam season. Like other UBC social media pages, including Sleepers of UBC, Overheard at UBC, and the #WhatWeShouldCallUBC tumblr, UBC Snaps is a public online forum that serves to build a sense of community by aggregating the shared experiences of strangers.

However, what are the implications of publicly sharing an otherwise private message? Speaking more broadly, what is the appeal of this “disappearing media”? And does anything online ever truly disappear?

The rise of Snapchat has been gargantuan. Boasting 400 million Snaps shared per day, the app has effectively surpassed Facebook in photo uploads. Social media gurus and sociologists alike have been quick comment on this new phenomenon. What is it about disappearing media that makes it so addictive?

In a world where we are constantly overloaded with new online content, the knowledge that a picture or video will disappear in a matter of seconds forces us to pay attention. The temporary nature of Snapchat also removes the pressure for every picture to appear posed and perfect. Unlike Facebook or Instagram posts that can be reviewed at anytime, Snapchats are not added to the online archive of your life. This renders these smartphone interactions more authentic, spontaneous and much less calculated than posts on other more permanent online forums.

Despite the perceived “disappearing” nature of this media, pages like UBC Snaps provide a stark reminder that nothing on the Internet is truly temporary, or private. While the fleeting nature of these pictures may lead us to let our guard down, especially when interacting with trusted friends, it remains important to stay educated about the privacy issues surrounding photo-sharing apps. Snapchat recently released a much-anticipated update, which includes both chatting and a Facetime-like video conferencing feature. Tech bloggers have expressed concern that these features make the app less private, and render it more difficult to monitor who has saved the media you have sent them. Many users were also outraged when a young forensics examiner discovered that supposedly deleted Snapchats could actually be retrieved relatively easily, and that Snapchat was quietly collecting information about its customers.

Next time you send that less-than-flattering selfie, remember: think before you snap!

Are you a Snapchat aficionado? How would you feel if one of your Snap masterpieces ended up as a public post visible to thousands of strangers? Let us know in the comments!

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Five take away lessons from the Digital Tattoo

By Kathleen Kalk on April 24, 2014 | Tagged with Digital Footprint, digital tattoo, Geotagging, Google Alerts, privacy, Social media, technology

I have been lucky enough to work for The Digital Tattoo Project since September 2012. The following (almost) two years have taught me so much, not just about protecting my online identity but all sorts of skills both hard and soft. For example, I now know how to create DIY educational materials as well as set up an account on Lulu. Digital literacy is undervalued in traditional education despite the fact that it directly effect everyone across all ages who interacts online. I hope that digital awareness and understanding of it’s importance continues to grow for teachers, students and all professionals.

With no further ado,

The top five things I have learned over the past two years working for The Digital Tattoo Project.

1. Everyone has passionate opinions about how they interact with their online environment.

How do you feel about being tracked online, Geotagging or Creative Commons licenses? So much of modern life takes place takes place online that we naturally feel ownership over what happens in an online sphere. One of the most incendiary topics is the idea of “Cleaning Up” your online identity. If the internet is an accurate reflection of who you are as a person, why do employers expect an prefect online footprint? There isn’t a perfect answer for this question, just like there isn’t a flawless online identity. In reality a hiring manager might not expect perfection but they will make decisions about your character as an employee? While the question of “fairness” often arises in Digital Tattoo workshops, the question is irrelevant. It is a fact that employers are investigating you online. What are you going to do about it?

2. Young people care about privacy.

It has become popular story in the media to talk about the very public lives of the millennial generation. Who can forget the infamous “Me Me Me” cover of TIME magazine? For every person who checks in online every time they enter a new building, there are many more who avoid it checking entirely. Constant Facebook and Twitter updates have been replaced by private conversations on mobile applications like SnapChat. University and High School students are becoming more and more aware of the implications of their online behavior.

3. Your Digital Footprint is always evolving.

Googling yourself isn’t narcissistic. In fact, you could call Googling yourself “maintaining your positive online brand”. For the less SEO, VC, and business minded of us, Googling yourself is a wonderful way to see what other people see of you. Be sure to click on the images tab of Google to see what pictures pop-up. You wouldn’t want your tagged vacation photos to show up in the first page of results. As your life changes with newactivities or careers, so does your online identity. Try to Google yourself every six months. That way you can work to shape your identity in a manner that best suits your personal and professional goals.

4. Social Media isn’t going away.

It might shift or evolve, move to a more private sphere or adapt into something that look more like the Friendsters or the past. To be honest, I have no sure bet idea. One thing that we can bet on is that the internet has completely changed the society we live in and that includes how we connect and interact with other people. That’s not going to change anytime soon.

5. Google Alerts are life changing.

Google Alerts are a way of life here at The Digital Tattoo. We use them to track our Digital Identity as well as help us with our research. Want to know if someone has published something online with your name? Just create a Google Alert and you’ll receive emails each time a person writes something which contains the phrase “John Smith”. If your name is super common (sorry John) you can add another piece of iditfiny information for example, “John Smith” and “UBC”. This will help set you apart online.

Well that’s all for now. Goodbye and TBYI!

Social media graduation image courtesy of mkhmarketing.wordpress.com, via Flickr.

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Data Mining: How eBay knew I’d buy that Batman Snuggie

By Marga Heras on April 10, 2014 | Tagged with data mining, TBYI

Ever wonder how Amazon knew you’d buy that slap chop set? Or how Netflix predicted you’d love Tropic Thunder before you even heard about it?

The reason behind this predictive magic is that companies like Amazon and Netflix are studying historical user data to improve their forecasting and marketing, and to increase their revenue.

Data Mining is the automated process of analyzing large sets of data and then transforming the data into targeted sets, picking out subtle patterns and trends that would otherwise go undetected. Companies use these analyzed data sets to gain insight into their consumers and to predict future trends and behaviours within their line of business. The information allows companies to reach their business goals by making proactive, knowledge-driven decisions and to answer questions that were previously too complex to resolve.

Data mining is mainly used by companies with a strong consumer focus in retail, finance, communication, and marketing. Target, for example, uses data mining techniques to track who is buy what, when they are buying it, what they are buying it with, and at what price. The company then uses this data to offer customers coupons that are tailored to their buying habits, move certain displays closer to others (Ex. move the chocolate aisle closer to the scented candles), and to decide when to put items on sale and when.

Hey students! Data mining is also used within the classroom. Learning Analytics is when students’ interactions with a learning management interface (like UBC Connect) are tracked and analyzed to determine learning trends, such as the average amount of time spent on a discussion board or the number of people that have read the syllabus. This allows professors and school administrators to view student progress and to determine an individual’s likelihood for success.

Applications of data mining methods are widespread and depend on the specific goals and needs of the company or organization. To learn more about the power of predictive analytics and data mining, check out our stop motion video below:

How does data mining impact your daily life? Do you think that data mining is invasive or useful? Do you have any privacy concerns regarding certain data mining techniques?

Share your thoughts in the comments below.

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My LinkedIn Profile is flawless, now what?

By Kathleen Kalk on April 2, 2014 | Tagged with

Congratulations on completing your LinkedIn profile! You have your most important courses listed, a handful of recommendations and your page is overflowing with endorsements. Is one business networking site enough? The answer depends on which field you hope to enter after graduation. For the majority of students a LinkedIn profile is a great first step in professional networking. Other kinds of professions might encourage additional types of online portfolios. A few of which will be featured here. All of these tools are free to join and easy to maintain.

Remember- A portfolio that is out of date is often worse than no portfolio at all.

Github is a social coding website which encourages programers and developers to to create and share programs and code. Github is also a great resource for the community to seek help from other programers who can answer questions on the issues their peers may have encountered. A Github account is essential for those wishing to enter the tech field. With over four million users, Github has resources for every conceivable type of coding. Many startups search Github for successful pieces of code and its authors. While you might not get an automatic job offer, Github is a essential piece of a tech CV.

Another great resource for technology online portfolios is Stack Overflow which functions as a question and answer site for professional and developing programmers. A strong profile on Stack Overflow will not only showcase your work but also show that you are a positive member of a community who enjoys supporting others as well as seeking help for your own projects.

A great resource for those who don’t know the difference between Java, Javascript and a cup of joe is Carbonmade. Carbonmade is a free to use and code free zone with kooky graphics and is packed full of features. Carbonmade encourages employers to search their databases of talent which feature photographers, graphic designers, interior designers, jewelry makers, copywriters and so much more! Be sure to check out some of their amazing featured portfolios to get your creative juices flowing.

The world of social media contains more land mines for some professions than others. Educators need to be extra careful of what they post and do online as they are often expected to be role models for youth within the community. Despite the extra critical lens of attention, educators still desire a social network that they can use to connect with other teachers and share resources. Edmodo is a social media site designed for teachers to interact with students in a safe space. It currently is connecting over 33 million teachers and students with educational resources and assessment tools. Keep in mind that Edmodo is hosted on servers within the United States and therefore should never be used to host Canadian student data.

Online profile tools are much more difficult to find for STEM fields. Many aspiring engineers and scientists choose to create their own websites with their portfolios, resumes and contact information. UBC provides free hosting for all current UBC students who wish to create an fully functional WordPress site. Not a student? Wix and SquareSpace both ofter free templates and hosting. No matter what path you want to pursue in your career, having a up-to-date, well designed online profile will help you stand out.

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Jelly: The “Point, Shoot, Ask” Search Engine

By Marga Heras on March 31, 2014 | Tagged with

Jelly App_Plant

Picture this: you’re walking downtown and you notice a camera crew and film trucks parked across the street. Curious, you fire up your Jelly app. You snap a picture of the scene, drop a pin of your location, and ask, “What’s filming here today?” Within minutes, 2 friends within your social network answer and let you know that your all-time favourite actor, Leonardo DiCaprio, is in town filming his new movie, “Oscar Hopeful”. 1 nearby user even lets you know that Leo is doing a fan meet-and-greet a block away from where you are. Score!

In January 2014 Twitter Co-Founder Biz Stone unveiled his new question-and-answer based social networking app and pseudo search engine, Jelly. The app makes use of today’s hyper-connected society by helping users find answers to their questions by mining their social networks for opinions. Users snap a photo (and can draw on photos Snapchat style), type out a question, and then receive real time answers from connections in their social networks and from other nearby users. All queries must be accompanied by a photo, which can be generated from a Google image search, taken from your phone’s Camera Roll, or snapped at the moment of questioning.

So why use Jelly to search for answers instead of Googling your question or posting it to Facebook? According to Stone, there are many every day questions that can’t be answered with your typical search engine. “No matter how sophisticated our algorithms become, they are still no match for the experience, inventiveness, and creativity of the human mind,” Stone shares on Jelly’s blog. “Jelly is a new way to search and something more–it makes helping other people easy and fun.” In addition to receiving personalized human opinions rather than computed information, using Jelly allows you to reach a much larger audience by connecting through Facebook and Twitter. Since the app is still in its infancy, its reach will continue to grow as it forms connections with more social sharing platforms.

As we often discuss in the Digital Tattoo Project, there are countless ways of connecting with others online. The Jelly app is an excellent example of the extreme connectivity of our society and how online participation is very much a two-way street. Will you be joining the Jelly community? Why or why not? Do you have any privacy concerns regarding the use of this app?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

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Double Doxxing

By Kathleen Kalk on March 6, 2014 | Tagged with

Today Newsweek magazine released a story which uncovered the identity of the creator of Bitcoin. The elusive Satoshi Nakamoto has been uncovered as a 61 year old Japanese-American man named Satoshi Nakamoto. His identity had been a closely guarded secret for the last five years until freelance reporter Leah McGrath Goodman tacked him down. Goodman used all her skills as a journalist to uncover the identity of the recluse inventor. She searched public records, interviewed his family and asked Nakamoto himself for an interview. The story hasn’t been out for 24 hours and a massive uproar is taking place. If you read the comments on the Newsweek article, the majority of comments are negative toward the piece saying that Goodman has broken this Nakamoto’s right to privacy and that his life is now in danger. At the time of writing this blog there were over a thousand comments some of many of which were directly threatening to Goodman. Reddit has been a flurry of activity since the article went live and despite the Reddit’s post Boston Bombing rule against “Reddit Justice”, many are calling for retribution against Goodman.

The idea of “doxxing” or revealing personal information about someone who acts under an anonymous persona is poorly regarded in the Reddit community. Many members of Reddit are also Bitcoin users and the backlash is quickly growing. Many are saying the Goodman herself needs to be doxxed and an informal reward has already been placed for the first person to do so.

Journalists have freedom to write and publish information they believe the public wants to hear. It might be poor taste to follow Brad Pitt around the shopping mall but it is their right to publish photos and information found in the public sphere. Goodman claims that the images found of Nakamoto and his home were both in the public sphere and that all of Nakamotos family members agreed to be interviewed for the article. As a journalist, she was well within her rights to publish. Tell that to the trolls.

As Forbes Journalist Kashmir Hill says in her article The Outing of Bitcoin Creator Satoshi Nakamoto is Brilliant Journalism, “It’s a journalist’s job to invade privacy, and to report things that people often don’t want reported, to tell stories people don’t want told. Respectable journalists try to do this in a way that doesn’t cause unnecessary harm, or unwarranted intrusion into people’s personal lives. The Bitcoin story is too big and too important not to be fully investigated and told.”

How do you feel about the recent outing of the creator of Bitcoin. Is it possible for anyone to remain anonymous?

iDoctor

By Kathleen Kalk on February 27, 2014 | Tagged with

No one enjoys going to the doctor’s office. The wait times are long, everyone appears to be contagious and you’d much rather be in bed. What if you could chat with your doctor from the comfort of your own home? What if you could interact with your doctor using the same tool that you use to Snapchat your friends? Many different telemedicine companies are hoping that soon you will be doing just that.

The company Doctor on Demand, hopes to save you that pesky trip to the doctors office by encouraging you to call a doctor from the confort of your own smart phone, tablet or computer. The doctor is accessed instantly and costs $40 dollars for a 15 minute video chat. Founded by the son of TV personality Dr. Phil, the app has seen rapid growth since it joined the ranks of telemedicine applications like MDLive, American Well and Teladoc. Telemedicine solutions are growing in popularity in the United States, as many people are concerned about the changing state of health care and the high costs of seeing a doctor after hours. The different telemedicine companies often have celebrity doctor endorsements like Dr. Phil or Dr. Stork from the TV show “The Doctors”. The different companies all work in a similar fashion. The patient uses the application and chats with a doctor over video, the doctor diagnoses their illness or issue and then instructs the patent on the best course of action. If the doctor prescribes any medicines, the prescription is sent to a local pharmacy to be filled. For many busy individual these services seem like a dream come true. They are cheap, fast and an effective replacement for minor doctors visits.

Say you use Doctor on Demand because you think you have a chest cold. You chat with a doctor over your smart phone screen for 15 minutes, receive your diagnosis and then have your prescriptions sent to your local pharmacy. That is a lot of very private and personal information being shared across the the internet. Although all of these companies say that they use private and secure networks, the real concern is what they do with your private health data. With everything from EKG to blood pressure being tracked and recorded online, it’s very easy to gain a comprehensive picture of a patient The information which is shared with your family physician and your pharmacist, is also of interest to outside corporations What if this information is gathered by insurance companies. Insurance companies would be interested in your health habits so they could adjust your rates accordingly.

When a company like Doctor on Demand is providing medical services incredibly cheaply, the first use of the service was free for the entire month of February, it is important to remember that your data and health records might be a product. Even in aggregate, health records are extremely valuable. According to Reuters, Aggregated data is used to create new data analyses which have the “potential to reach back through the system via email or pop-up ads and directly target doctors and patients – both for medical and marketing purposes.” So remember, the information you provide a doctor over a 15 minute video chat is going to be examined long after your sore throat has healed.

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#Neknomation: Will you accept the challenge?

By Marga Heras on February 21, 2014 | Tagged with

kegstand1 What do two types of beer, vodka, milk, a spider, and four dead mice have in common?

These are just a few of the ingredients that 24 year-old Aaron Johnson of Gravesend, England food processed and drank on film, later uploading the footage to Facebook and YouTube and calling on two of his friends to try to outdo his disturbing performance.

Aaron’s stunt is part of an outlandish new trend known as Neknomination, an global online drinking game where participants film themselves “necking” liquor in a daring or humorous fashion, and then nominating two friends to out-drink and out-perform them by attempting more extreme stunts. Those who accept the challenge upload their drinking footage to their social media network within 24 hours of being nominated. To date, there are hundreds of Neknomination videos shared on Facebook and YouTube, some of which have over 400,000 views each.

As the popularity of the game has drastically increased through the Internet and social media, nominees have taken to performing challenges in more extreme circumstances by drinking larger, more potent quantities of liquor, or by engaging in dangerous activities either during or immediately after finishing their drinks. One woman downed an entire bottle of Jagermeister through a home-made funnel. An undergraduate student at the University of Leeds interrupted his lecture with a vuvuzela, and then guzzled a beer in front of hundreds of students and his professor. Another man emptied liquor into a toilet bowl, and then got two of his friends to hold his feet up as he did a handstand over the bowl and lapped up all of the booze.

Although some of these videos may seem like harmless fun, other stunts linked to the global game have had fatal consequences. At least five men have died in relation to Neknominations, either from the drinking itself or the stunts they attempted after downing the alcohol. But despite the deaths of these young men, coupled with knowledge of the dangers of excessive drinking, the game remains popular across the globe.

So why are young people, particularly university students, perpetuating the Neknomination craze? Within the game, nominees are called to action in front of their social networks through various online channels. Students may feel pressure from their friends and cohorts to participate, as those who do not accept the challenge or who do not outperform their nominator, risk losing face among their peers. Other students may post outrageous Neknomination videos in an effort to gain popularity through “likes”. Whatever the reason, the online drinking craze has gone viral through social media, and has lead to a number of tragic outcomes.

In an effort to curb the social media drinking craze, some students have opted to “[spread] good cheer, rather than beer,” performing random acts of kindness, or “Nicenominations“, and challenging their friends to do the same.

Would you accept a Neknomination, Nicenomination, or neither from your peers? Why or why not? How might sharing these videos through social media affect your online and physical identity?

Share your thoughts in the comments below!

Hashing out the hashtag

Censorship versus Privacy: the implications of the “right to be forgotten”

Data Mining: How eBay knew I’d buy that Batman Snuggie

My LinkedIn Profile is flawless, now what?

Jelly: The “Point, Shoot, Ask” Search Engine

Double Doxxing

iDoctor

#Neknomation: Will you accept the challenge?

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