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24th January 2021

M/E/S – Who am I, in this digital, neoliberal hellscape?

I consume (data), therefore I am. the internet consumes me, and spits back out what it thinks I want to see, to keep me hooked on what it provides.

Because of the GDPR, most sites allow you to easily access the data they harvest and have processed about you. Here is a list generated by Facebook, showing my ‘interests’ based on my Facebook activity. Although I’m not an avid Facebook user, the results were interesting nonetheless.

Other information Facebook has generated about me:

  • My peer group – “Late High School or University”
  • A long list of websites listed as “Off-Facebook activity”. How they’ve acquired this information, I do not know.
  • The model of my phone.
  • My “Blood Donor settings” are set to unregistered.
  • My primary location is near Edinburgh, Scotland, EH3 9. This has been calculated using my IP address, amongst other things.

I’ve also examined the meta data Google has collected about me. Since I used their services more often, I’d assumed the results would be more accurate. They range from vague (e.g. Investing, Fast Food) to rather specific (Bollywood & East Asian Film, Merchant Services & Payment Systems), although I don’t think I’d be particularly receptive to any of those if I saw them advertised to me.

Here are my Ad interests according to Instagram, the first is for my art account and the second my personal – there are a fair few crossovers between the two (no idea why hip-hop music appears twice). I had expected Instagram’s results to be the most accurate since I used this social media platform the most, and for the most part these assumptions are fairly safe. Despite following many artists and galleries, no categories relating to art have appeared, suggesting that this is a field in which does not produce many commercial products suitable to be marketed on Instagram. There are also no categories which could link to the many activist accounts I follow.

M/E/S – Who am I, in this digital, neoliberal hellscape? / Ellis Ludlow Arty Blog 2020-2021 by blogadmin is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution CC BY 3.0

2 Comments

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  1. Bridie Gill

    24th January 2021 — 1:32 am

    Didn’t know you were into property and investment comrade… hmm

    Reply

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