Parthasarathy on how online activity is used to monitor our daily lives | Gerald R. Ford School of Public Policy

Parthasarathy on how online activity is used to monitor our daily lives

July 1, 2022 WDET

Have you opened up your browser to see ads for a product you were just talking about with a friend? Does it seem like your electronic devices are tracking you? You are not alone, and they are, says Professor Shobita Parthasarathy on WDET's Culture Shift. 

“The more that our lives are entirely dictated by our electronic devices, the more the companies that provide those services have taken advantage [of this].”

For example, Parthasarathy says that we pay for the free apps we use with our data, which can be used to sell products and to understand and target markets.

“These days, we’re talking about such enormous troves of data that in fact, [corporations and law enforcement] can triangulate data from lots of different sources to produce a pretty complete picture of you. Often, you are disclosing information about yourself that you don’t even realize.”

Read and listen on WDET.