Tech Tip: Google Data

For the new "ethical ed-tech" tech tip this week, I wrote up something based on an article I read recently in the New York Times: How to Set Your Google Data to Self-Destruct.

I adjusted a lot of settings, and I was glad to see I already had the ad personalization turned off. 

Speaking for myself, I get tremendous value from the Google services that I use, but I'm also increasingly concerned about the "data economy" I guess you could call it. In particular, I am really angry about changes at Instructure which have turned Canvas into a surveillance tool, collecting data about teachers and students that Instructure is using to build predictive algorithms, ugh. I've written about that extensively at my Digital Teaching blog.

One of the upsides of becoming "data woke" is that I've read some good books (like Zuboff's Surveillance Capitalism), and I have also built up a network of trusted sources at Twitter from whom I learn new things every day.

It's depressing stuff, but it's important. I've kept up with this schedule of a new "ethical ed tech" tip here each week, so that I can start off next semester with a good set of tips for students who are also concerned the data economy, and who want to have more control over their data in this online class. I can't do anything about Canvas (except to keep petitioning for a data opt-out), but I hope I can do a better job of supporting students who prefer non-Google options in the future, along with helping students who want to take better control of their Google data.