Taking Control of Your Personal Data

Course Overview

Course No. 1138

Shields up! Build a personal force field to keep your personal information safe, sound, and untouchable with this essential guide to digital privacy.

Professor Jennifer Golbeck reveals: ✔ How your data is collected and used without your knowledge ✔ Legal (but concerning) data practices by corporations ✔ Practical steps to protect your digital footprint ✔ Global perspectives on privacy laws and norms

Key topics covered:

• Data harvesting techniques
• Online tracking methods
• Dark web privacy options
• Algorithmic bias risks
• Future privacy legislation

Video Lectures

01: How Your Data Tells Secrets

Duration: 31 min
Discover how seemingly innocent online activities (photos, likes, comments) reveal surprising details about you and predict future behavior.

02: The Mechanics of Data Harvesting

Duration: 27 min
Learn about hidden apps and trackers that collect your phone data, with practical steps to limit access.

03: Privacy Preferences: It’s All about You

Duration: 25 min
Assess your personal privacy profile to make informed tradeoffs between convenience and protection.

04: The Upside of Personal Data Use

Duration: 21 min
Understand the value of recommender algorithms to companies and when data use benefits consumers.

05: Online Tracking: Yes, You’re Being Followed

Duration: 27 min
Explore IP tracking, cookies, browser fingerprinting, and methods to block digital surveillance.

06: Nowhere to Hide? Privacy under Surveillance

Duration: 22 min
Uncover unexpected privacy invasions from medical devices to shopping mall kiosks.

07: Consent: The Heart of Privacy Control

Duration: 33 min
Examine problematic privacy policies and solutions for more transparent data consent.

08: Data Scandals and the Lessons They Teach

Duration: 27 min
Analyze major data breaches (Cambridge Analytica, Ashley Madison) and their real-world consequences.

09: The Dark Web: Where Privacy Rules

Duration: 23 min
Evaluate Tor browser and dark web as privacy tools – benefits and potential drawbacks.

10: Algorithmic Bias: When AI Gets It Wrong

Duration: 23 min
Understand how biased data affects algorithms making life-altering decisions about employment, loans, etc.

11: Privacy on the Global Stage

Duration: 28 min
Compare privacy paradigms in Europe, U.S., and China – from data ownership to government surveillance.

12: Navigating the Future of Personal Data

Duration: 28 min
Explore emerging privacy laws like California’s CCPA and the special case of DNA data privacy.