November 20th, 2020 by Behartheja Thondapi
When exploring on the internet, companies like google and facebook build a virtual profile for your interests and what you do when you are online. While in the early 2000’s this data they were collecting was known to have no importance or value. In today’s world the data is used in many different ways. For example the data of people misspelling words is used to build spell checkers. Most notorious use is the “did you mean?” function on google. Companies use the data to track patterns of human behavior and how people with different behavioral traits function. With these data platforms then place the user into a category and predict what certain people are likely to do.
This method is called behavior surplus. With this model they predict even the smallest moves the user may make, like food they would be in the mood for. By predicting these aspects of their behavior, they give advertisements or suggestions that would lead them to what the system predicts they want. In most cases these algorithms can predict almost anything. It is almost scary what the algorithm can do. These systems are so advanced and filled with data that is collected with the smallest purchases or browsing and can predict what's going on in your life.
At this point the use of social media to post your photos is something to reconsider multiple times before posting. The facial expressions that you post on social media are often sold to many countries and companies who then use the data in any way they like. Pokemon Go was a game that was originally developed by google then marketed through a different marketer to make it user friendly. This game was developed for footfall. While Pokemon Go seems like a harmless game, it was ultimately created for people to go into businesses and purchase products. This was done through the method of lure modules, the practice of luring people to your business. Not for their own happiness, but for the money they would spend in the restaurant or area they were in. The game was used as a large scale experiment to engineer behavior. Google used this experiment to give value to their prediction.
