Prof. Cameron Blevins

Introduction to Digital Studies
HIST 3260/5260 | COMM 3081/5081
M/W 2:00-3:15pm
North Classroom 1608
Office Hours: W. 3:30-4:30pm
TA Office Hours: M. 12:30-1:30pm

Assignment Overview

Taking control of your digital identity involves getting a handle on what is already out there and what you want people and companies to be able to know about you. This assignment involves going through a checklist of tasks and a written reflection of the experience.

Learning Goals

  • Improve your own digital hygiene practices
  • Wrestle with the larger issue of online privacy and security
  • Develop skills for writing online

Privacy and Security Checklist

Complete the following checklist, taking notes on what you’ve found:

  • You’re going to try and see what someone else might see if they were to search for you on the web. This isn’t going to be perfect, since everyone’s search results are going to be customized to their search history, location, etc. but we’ll do our best. First, using a different browser from the one you normally use in your day to day life (ex. Chrome, Firefox, Safari, or Edge), turn on “Incognito Mode” and then do a search for your full name (in quotation marks) using two search engines: Google (which probably knows more about you than any other company) and DuckDuckGo (which prioritizes privacy). Review the first two pages of search results for each search engine. What sorts of pages are you finding? Are they related to you or to other people? What are some differences between the two sets of results? Finally, choose someone who might be searching you (potential employer, coworker, first date, etc.). What are the impressions they might have from this?
  • Choose your favorite social media platform (TikTok, Snapchat, Instagram, Facebook, etc.). Go into the app and review your privacy settings. Who is able to see your posts, photos, etc.? Adjust them as needed.
  • Open your mobile phone and check the suggestions under “How to improve your mobile privacy” towards the bottom of Thorin Klosowski, “How Mobile Phones Became a Privacy Battleground—and How to Protect Yourself” New York Times (September 29, 2022). Were there any apps that had more access than you had intended? What are some of the potential tradeoffs between something like location services (letting an app know where you are) and your privacy?
  • Choose five websites that you regularly log into using a username and password, making sure to include at least one site that contains sensitive information like a bank or credit card account. With pen and paper, write down the login information for each of them (username and password). Is there any overlap in the passwords you use? Next, check each of the passwords using the Password Strength Check. How secure are they? Finally, come up with a plan for how you want to handle your passwords. Consider using a password manager, which allows you to automatically generate separate random passwords for each website you have to log into and then keep those passwords in a single, secure repository that can automatically fill them in for you so you don’t need to type or remember them. Or, if you don’t want to do that, write your passwords on a single, handwritten list and update all of your passwords so that there is: a) no overlap between sites and b) uses strong passwords.

Written Reflection

  • In your Wordpress site, write a roughly 600-800 word page that summarizes the state of your own personal digital hygiene and reflects on the larger issue of personal privacy in a digital age.
  • Some questions to consider:
    • What did you learn from each part of the exercise?
    • Did you end up having to make any changes?
    • More broadly, what is the responsibility of individuals vs. regulators vs. private companies to protect privacy?
  • The goal of this post is to write something coherent that is tailored for online reading. It should not read like a traditional college essay and it shouldn’t be a jumbled list of observations.
  • As part of your post, please include at least two non-text elements (an image, GIF, video, etc.) driving home your points, with proper attribution.
  • You want to weave together elements of your own personal experience with larger thoughts, so be selective about what examples you want to focus on and how they tie together. Think about tone, style, and formatting - use some of the readings you’ve had for this class as models.

Submit a URL of your reflection to Canvas by 11:59PM on February 12th