Ben Kepes, tech commentator, 46
I’ve been on Facebook for about 12 years, and I’m a heavy user. As such it would be naive of me to think I hadn’t left a massive digital footprint over the years. I also use Google apps, G Suite, Google Hangouts – basically everything Google does.
What’s in the bag:
My Facebook archive – which extends to nearly a gigabyte of data – contains thousands of photos, messages, videos and contact information for my friends list. I came away after trawling my archive not with any sense of horror at how much data Facebook has about me, but rather a deeper appreciation of the scale of the social graph that Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies has created. I’ve always been comfortable sharing my life online, and downloading my archive simply confirmed to me that I act accordingly.
We visit Facebook to communicate, share photos and videos and to arrange events – the amount of personal data that Facebook holds about me is to be expected. Google’s data aggregation feels more insidious than Facebook’s. Whereas Facebook looks at us and overtly captures what we do, it feels more like Google is observing us out of the corner of its eye and tracking things which, perhaps, verge on the creepy. That’s not to say I am surprised about any of the information Google has about me.
My perspective has always been that if I get a better experience – whether it’s being suggested a cafe when I’m on the other side of the world, or connecting with friends or whatever – I’m happy for brands to waste their money sending me advertising that I’m going to completely ignore. That for me has always been the implicit contract between myself and the social networks.
Grant Sidaway, Seniornet executive officer, 65
Lurker or oversharer? I’m not on Facebook a lot. I set up significant controls from the outset. I’m old – I’ve been around long enough to know that if anything is free, there’s always a catch. It’s only for family purposes. I had a birthday, people congratulated me, I posted some photos.
That’s lovely, but that’s as far as it goes. People that know me will call me and we will visit each other. I use the Dominion Post check – would I be comfortable with anything I do or say being reported in The Dominion Post? And if I can give myself a tick there, I’m happy to do anything on the internet.
What’s in the bag? There’s nothing much in my Facebook profile – four videos, half-a-dozen pictures. I’m married and I like going to football and that sort of stuff is profiled in there. Does it cause me any angst? No. I looked at the ad words and subsequently deleted a few – don’t know why I had one called women’s issues! I’ll probably go back in a month’s time and see are those settings still in place.
The Google data was really interesting – location services, there was a hell of a lot in there. I travelled to the UK – it was like going back in time. Oh, I remember going to that restaurant, that was lovely. I had forgotten what time I went there. All that detail was unbelievably