Talk:Ian Mascarenhas
Soumya Tejam’s Comments:
Ian — your data identity statement is very well crafted and makes for a thoughtful read, thank you for sharing! First, I want to appreciate the depth of your analysis and the initiative you’ve taken to use different browsers and different search modes. The distinction—or indistinction in your case—between the results in these browsers can make for an additional point of inquiry that you could consider exploring to build into your overall theme of asking who controls and accesses our data.
The three tiers of classification that you’ve used provide a suitable framework for the development of your analysis, especially with regard to the privacy policies that you’ve investigated. In my reading of your statement, I found that your central question concerned privacy policies of organizations that could access and distribute our information, but I couldn’t find an explicit statement about this. You ask insightful questions about this in your conclusion and I would encourage you to deepen your analysis by also trying to answer them.
Finally, I want to appreciate how your language and tone made your identity statement relatable and approachable. We all quietly wonder about privacy and the ownership of our data, but by posing those questions succinctly I think you build a great connection with your audience. Great work!
Ray Bartlett's Comments
Ian,
Overall, this was a great essay. I feel that it flowed very well and you had a unique and well executed structure by sorting the different categories of information you dug up on yourself. I also think that the tone and general writing style lended to giving the whole read a very personal feel, and being very clear and upfront about how you feel about each piece of information being available effectively conveys your thoughts on the topic as a whole. The anecdote about LinkedIn’s search policy stood out to me as particularly fascinating, and is emblematic of the amount of research you put into the assignment.
As for what could potentially be improved, I got the sense that the quote in part one of the second classification is a little longer than it needs to be and, though you openly acknowledged that it isn’t necessarily equivalent to your case, I agree that it is similar in principle. However, there might be another quote in this reading or another that is more concise and in line with what you’re talking about specifically. Lastly, though you being in control of most of the results implies that your digital identity is more or less an accurate representation of you, I’m curious to explicitly read whether you believe this is a fair portrayal or not. This doesn’t need to be the central focus of the whole paper, but you found some very interesting information, and it made me wonder whether you being able to control the social media pages is enough for you to consider the searches of your name to be a complete portrait of you as a person, especially since all three are private to varying degrees.
