Talk:Rohan Patel

Aditya Gupta's Comment

Hi Rohan,

I was drawn to read your data identity since we both have very common Indian names, with the potential for hundreds, if not thousands of other people with the same name showing up on google search results before we did. Clearly, you experienced the same problems I did with other people actually having the same name. Where I did not have a similar experience is the data brokers had virtually no information about me, whereas they did have some correct and crucial information about you and your family. I thought you went about explaining your statement really well, as I kind of followed the same format of introducing information about myself before getting into what I found online. If I had some advice for the statement as a whole, I really wish you would have integrated the readings into your draft, even if it was not perfect. Having the readings can really give your profile an almost "credible" feel and strengthen your points about your data identity even more so. When it came to your analysis of the data profile, I pretty much also wrote about how I have never gone to extreme lengths to hide my personal information on the internet, and how I too have also never been too into social media. I really liked your point about actually constructing a profile about yourself, since it is so true that it would be impossible to build an accurate data profile without having prior data. I think you have a really great conclusion going here and honestly the only thing I'd improve is to add more to it by integrating the readings. I really enjoyed reading your statement!

- Aditya Gupta

Lawrence Zheng's Comment

Hi Rohan, I think your data identity brought up some interesting points, especially the part about how you are shielded from companies building a data profile on you if you have a relatively common name, but also the part about never reading terms and conditions. I never really thought about this part before, but I'm definitely in the same boat with not reading terms and conditions and I would bet that 99.99% of our generation does the same. I wonder if companies make terms and conditions so long and tedious to go through on purpose in order to get people to not read it, and if this is ethical practice. If a terms and conditions document specifies that they are going to sell your data, does that make it justified since you technically agreed to it?

Regarding the writing, I enjoyed your style of writing and I felt that you had a pretty distinctive casual voice which I liked. I think the main "meat" of your data identity would be the part about how having a common name "shielded" you from companies building an accurate data profile on you, so I think you could emphasize this part more and perhaps talk about it a bit at the beginning so the writing is more cohesive and feels more focused. You could also reflect a bit on the ethics of this at the end, and how someone with a more uncommon name would not be so lucky with privacy.

Good luck with your revisions!