Data Contextualization

For my project, I recorded the number of texts I received, who they were from, and what day of the week they were received on. This data allows me to see how my main form of communication impacts my daily routine. When I had to track how often I was texting it made it apparent how much of my day I spend doing it. I received the most texts from my fantasy football group chat, 527 over the course of 14 days, which is roughly 38 texts a day. In total, I received on average 176 texts per day which when you consider the time it takes to read and respond to those texts is a significant portion of my day. When we take time to consider how data affects our lives we regain a kind of power over it. In the modern age, data is used in everything and collected by everyone which I realized in completing this project. I had never considered what Apple might be doing with any of the information sent in my texts or if it’s safe from outside interests until this unit. 

The part of the data unit that pertains most to my project is encryption. Encryption essentially refers to the process of protecting your data through use of passwords. The data is either obscured or unavailable until the proper password is input. The reason this is particularly important in the context of my project is the private information that exists within my text messages. Not only are there private thoughts, both of my own and people who text me, but also personal information such as social security and credit card numbers. My first thought was that Apple may be storing and locking at these texts but after some research, this seems implausible “Unless Apple is omitting something … they really can’t read your iMessages without a fairly insane amount of effort” (Kumparak). The caveat of unless does exist, it is theoretically possible Apple has a backdoor into reading your messages but it is both unlikely and even if true unlikely they would specifically target a random user like me. My next thought, however, was a much more likely one, what if someone got a hold of my laptop or phone. They would have unlimited access to my messages and the personal data that goes along with it. If someone doesn’t know my password Lifehacker states, “Even if you put your computer to sleep, it’s possible an experienced hacker could recover sensitive data from your computer’s RAM” (Gordon). This is a reality we live in, the convenience we receive from technology is a tradeoff for privacy, encryption helps us mitigate some of that tradeoff.

The Mapping of Massacres article helped me understand how to visualize my data in an interesting way that pertains to my data. The article mentions how an earlier draft of the visual used red dots to denote massacres but it was changed because red was a sacred color to many cultures (Dovey). This helped me understand how every part of your visualization conveys a message. This led me to use a blue theme in my project because that’s the color scheme iMessage uses. The article also gave me the idea to put two graphs on my poster because of the depth of their visualization. Not just does the map show where events occurred but also provides information about each massacre when you click on the dot. I wanted to convey my data in a way that’s interesting and showing two graphs provides more information and context. Data can often be difficult to understand, for example, if the map visualizing the massacres in Australia didn’t have that second layer of depth explaining the specifics most people wouldn’t know what they’re looking at. Sometimes companies try to make data confusing on purpose, I had the data Instagram keeps track of sent to me and it’s almost impossible to understand. While their algorithms have no trouble deciphering the information to figure out what ads I might be interested in, to the plain eye it makes little sense. These ideas together helped me realize that design and how you present the information is just as important as the data itself. 

This unit helped me understand the importance of data in our everyday lives and how we can utilize it. Tracking my text messages helped me realize how much time I spend on my phone and also about the safety of that information. In general, the biggest takeaway I had from this unit was privacy. Data is not sacred, and companies do not have your best interest at heart. In the capitalist world we live in today companies need your data to survive. There are multiple ways for the consumer to protect itself from these invasions of privacy companies force upon us including projects like this that get people thinking about data and it’s usage. Another is encryption, protecting yourself from people who look to weaponize data essentially holding you hostage. There is nothing we can do to fight the technological movement, to get a job, to graduate college, to communicate you need to use technology and therefore data will be tracked, all we can do is be knowledgeable and smart in how we go about it.

Works Cited

Dovey, Ceridwen. “The Mapping of Massacres.” The New Yorker, The New Yorker, 7 Dec. 2017, https://newyorker.com/culture/culture-desk/mapping-massacres.

Gordon, Whitson. “A Beginner’s Guide to Encryption: What It Is and How to Set It Up.” Lifehacker, Lifehacker, 2 Apr. 2015, https://lifehacker.com/a-beginners-guide-to-encryption-what-it-is-and-how-to-1508196946.

Kumparak, Greg. “Apple Explains Exactly How Secure IMessage Really Is.” TechCrunch, TechCrunch, 27 Feb. 2014, https://techcrunch.com/2014/02/27/apple-explains-exactly-how-secure-imessage-really-is/.