11.2 Summarizing Crawford’s “The Anxieties of Big Data”

For Thursday, read pp. 65-71 in Carrie Rentschler’s “Rape Culture and the Feminist Politics of Social Media.”  Also skip forward to the next passage in the Unit 2 Reader, “Templates for Explaining Quotations” by Gerald Graff, and read it.
For your blog post, please post your paragraph-long summary of Crawford’s article “The Anxieties of Big Data,” mentioning 3 different points she makes and using conjunctive adverbs to link your sentences (e.g., In addition, Furthermore, Similarly, By contrast, Indeed, Thus, etc.).  You might like to refer to the Summary Response Form on p. 49 of our Collective Notes document.

11 thoughts on “11.2 Summarizing Crawford’s “The Anxieties of Big Data””

  1. In the article “The Anxieties of Big Data,” Kate Crawford exposes government agencies that uses ones data to spy and envade their privacy. Crawford pointed out one of the many government secret programs called Squeaky Dolphin, which have (observed/monitored) people’s interactions within social media sites, such as youtube and facebook. She states that these collections of big data’s by the government causes people to fear. Namely, they fear that the things typed/searched on a regular basis may reveal too much of who they are, which maybe will lead to the misinterpretion of their character. Thus, people try to achieve the “normcore” which is the ability to blend in , doing things viewed as normal in society in order to minimize the amount of their data being collected.

  2. In the article, Crawford writes about project Squeaky Dolphin, exposed by Edward Snowden, in addition to that, she also writes that this was just one of many data collection programs that was exposed. However, Crawford claims that surveillant anxiety is similar to a conjoined twin, the anxiety of those surveillers is deeply connected to the anxiety of the surveillers, which is hard to believe but I wouldn’t understand since I’ve never been monitored before. On page 3/0, Crawford explains how data collection during moments of dramatic events such as Boston Boming or the disappearance of a Boeing 777, is never ending and deeply flawed. Furthermore, she describes how the bigger the data is being collected, the more smaller things can be overlooked.

  3. In Crawford article, government agencies uses a data to spy on people privacy. People are acting paranoid because their every move were being monitored. They wanted to act normal so they wouldn’t be notice for being different. Therefore people tried to reach the (norm-core) so they can blend in and be like everyone else. people don’t want to seem as if they are the outcast in society. It create a fear in society because no one want to make a mistake. The more people fear to be what they want to be, creates less diversity.

  4. In the article “The Anxieties of Big Data,” Kate Crawford talks about her findings and observations. Crawford mentioned a British intelligence program called Squeaky Dolphin which is used to monitor popular social sites such as Facebook and YouTube, in efforts to collect data to possibly determine threats to countries or other individuals. Thus society has a sort of anxiety toward the internet and the way they use it, worried that they may be a target of the government. She then talks about normcore and its use as a sort of fashion trend, when K-Hole, a group of trend forecasters whom she also mentions in the article states that normcore is not so much of a fashion trend but a way to feel free and not stand out.

  5. In the article”The anxieties of big data,” Kate Crawford talks about how people are being surveilled for data purposes, the way some people use fashion to pass unnoticed and also the “consumer side” of surveillant anxiety . The author uses the example of a British program known as “Squeaky Dolphin” to describe how that agency spy on Youtube and Facebook users based on their views and likes. In fact, the anxiety comes from not knowing why the government is controlling everyone’s move and also what they do with the data collected.In addition it’s like everybody is scared including the government like it is said in the article “Those of surveillers and the surveilled.”

  6. In the article “The Anxieties Of Big Data” Crawford explains how the use of a government agency call squeaky dolphin allows the government to spy on people. Consequently, people are unaware when being on popular social media platforms that they are being watch, this can cause fear among the public. Crawford also explains a topic call norm core which is like following the latest trend. However, when you get a much deeper understanding of the concept its basically people trying to fit in or stay low. Most people are thrown into certain categories because of where they live or the help they receive from the government. This gives the idea people try to fit in more standing out could draw unnecessary attention towards them, causing that fear of being watch. Crawford definitely gives interesting points in this article on how the anxiety between the people and government are intertwine because they feed off of each other.

  7. In the article “The Anxieties Of Big Data,” Kate Crawford discusses how data is being used in todays day and age. Crawford observes that intelligent agencies, anxieties are easily caused in an attempt of trying to understand the big datas by grasping smaller ones instead. Indeed, confusions arises as consumers begin to feel paranoid. Questions such as “what do they know about me” or “what can they tell about me.” In addition, She also mentions that being able to blend in or pass is a form of privilege. The satisfying of blending in gives a self assurance feel as if you’re not on the radar, better yet; low-key. Furthermore,Crawford also notes in the article “ As Virginia Eubanks’s work has shown, if you want to see the future of surveillance, look to poor communities”. For instance, Being a low income American on welfare benefits; there is no doubt they are being tracked with these advanced technologies such as their records on electronic funds.

    After reading Crawford’s article, I am inclined to agree with her point that data mining does indeed causes anxieties. Its truthfully frightening, to comprehend that the government can trace it all with a simple chip on a debit or credit card. Small data does matter, in fact it fills the void and concludes details to a persons search bar history , bank statements, social media etc.

  8. Kate Crawford, ” The Anxieties of Big Data “, talk about a important topic that isn’t given to much thought on a daily basis. She addresses the truth of how there is no privacy on the internet and reasons of why that is. It’s the government’s job to keep an eye out for criminals which is why they spy on our internet info, to personally see that we aren’t do anything illegal. Business companies spy on our data so that they can take our money through the power of ads and discovering our interests from online posts we put on social medias. While it’s unpleasant to know that this is going on daily, people forget this fact a the view that this method helps cops catch terrorists more easily.

  9. In the article “the anxieties of big data”, the author Kate Crawford discuses how online data is being used. A British government program known as “Squeaky Dolphin,” which monitors what you like on Facebook and the contents you view on YouTube. According to Crawford people are unaware that they are constantly being watched. This brings fear into the common man because there is no privacy even when you are online. However Crawford suggests a new way of blending as a new form of privilege. This is because if you look at “marginalized communities,” who support people on EBT, in underdeveloped communities, they are always being watched. The EBT cards that they have contain electronic chips. These cards track the consumers. These communities also have the biggest numbers of police petrol and the highest number of security cameras compared to other areas that don’t have a large number of blacks in the populations. Crawford makes good points on how these data’s are being used and nowadays you can’t even be too careful, or you will be mistaken for a terrorist.

  10. In the article,”Anxieties of Big Data,” Kate Crawford argues the issues caused by people being surveilled by government and the anxiety it has caused on people. Crawford in her essay, writes about a secret agency ran by British Intelligence called, “Squeeky Dolphin,” which collects real time data from some of the most commonly used internet platforms. Furthermore, she explains how obscure people feel about being watched all the time, in fact people are uncertain about what part of their life is being watched. On the other hand, Crawford claims that it’s not only people who are being surveilled, but also the agencies; that are anxious whether their data is enough and accurate or not.

  11. 3 different points from Kate Crawford’s article “The Anxieties of Big Data”

    In the article “The Anxieties of Big Data”, Kate mentions many important points that helps us realize how important data is. She mentions Squeaky Dolphin is a secret program created to monitor facebook likes and youtube views. In addition, Squeaky dolphin had a program that can merge big data together with the use of small data. In contrast, it will never be enough data for satisfaction according to the article on pg 3/9 ” The bigger the
    data gets, the more small things can be overlooked.”

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