Please watch the following:
• Brief video on Prospect theory (gain v loss and risk)
• Brief video on Firefox Collusion
• 60 minutes "Selling Information..."
After reviewing the above, think of a time that you provided information and you actively considered (used slow thinking) whether you should post, text, tell, etc. what you eventually shared.
Describe the process (your options, the constraints, the situation), relating it to the idea of risk discussed in the videos and your course readings above (i.e. knowledge that information is gathered, packaged, and sold).
Your critiques should help identify connections that the author of the post may have missed.
Keep in mind that Kahneman states that:
• individuals give more "weight" to losses than gains
• individuals tend to compare themselves and their gains to others (relative positioning)
• individuals tend to under-react (engage in risky behaviors) when the odds of harm seem low.
Example of one of my classmate's answers
My family and I love to travel every summer. A few years ago, we went on a road trip and naturally, I decided to take a bunch of pictures so I could show my friends when I got back. While on the trip, we were eating at a café and I wanted to "check in" to the location on Facebook and post a picture of what I was eating.
Just before I was going to post, my older sister warned me not to do it. She asked me why the whole internet needed to know where I was, and even more, that I wasn't home. At first, I thought she was overreacting. But after hearing how a simple post could essentially eliminate my privacy and share information about my personal life with the world, I reconsidered. Instead of "checking in" to the location, I posted a more general one liner about the subject and added in an inside joke that my close friends would understand when reading.
I had two clear options in this scenario: I could post something or I could simply not post anything at all. If I decided to post, that would open endless possibilities on the content and detail that I would share about my life. Both options, easy and effortless to achieve, but one choice that could do more harm than intended.
As Kahneman stated, people put more weight to losses than gains. After considering what I would gain by posting and what I could potentially lose by doing the same thing, I decided to steer clear of sharing too much on the internet.
I heard stories from friends who had posted that they were on vacation and came home to a house that had been robbed. Of course, this seemed like an extreme case, and that's why I initially disregarded what my sister was telling me and was more willing to engage in what could be considered risky.
After watching the videos and reading from the book, it really put in perspective just how much we are unknowingly sharing about ourselves online. Some is intentional, like the Facebook post, while others aren't as obvious, like scrolling through a site that has ten other sites watching your every move.
I think consumers need to be more cautious when sharing information online because it is not easy to track where the information ends up. I also think that many people are unaware that they are being tracked, and to what extent, which raises another issue that consumers need to be educated about the potential dangers involved with this technology.