2:15a –
Wake up and turn off my alarm on the iPhone Clock app.
If I were to wear my Apple Watch while I sleep then Apple would be able to track my time spent sleeping, how long I was in REM, my heart rate, respiratory rate, and more. For this reason, I don’t wear it, but Apple’s Health app does track my sleep time since I use the “Sleep | Wake Up” feature where you can set the time you go to best to the time you want to wake up and it shows how many hours you’ll get. Most of their data on this is inaccurate since I don’t fall asleep right at the time I set for my bedtime.
2:30a –
I check Canvas.
They have my personal information as a student. They have my personal data like email, location, and name, and I had assumed they might have access to all the information ASU has, like my student ID and home address but I wasn’t positive. I decided to look at the privacy policy on Canvas and it brought me to their parent company’s site, Instructure, where they have a long list of what information data they collect. My assumption was confirmed, they do say they collect “imported profile information from third-party websites” that you use to log in, such as your ASU credentials. Additionally, they collect “video images and voice recordings” which felt slightly alarming, but I’m also not surprised.
2:45a –
I use DuckDuckGo on the Brave Browser .
DuckDuckGo is a search engine without tracking, which also means no targeted ads.
Brave Browser is a browser that blocks trackers and ads on any website you visit. You can also switch this off at any moment if something you need to view, like a video, won’t load because of the ad blockers.
I used these to make a price comparison of VPN companies. I’ve had Private Internet Access for 4 years but wanted to see what the cost of Proton Mail’s VPN was (it was more expensive).
2:50a –
I add money to my CashApp card for my Netflix payment.
CashApp has my baking routing and account numbers, address, email, phone number, and records of my spending habits and who I’ve sent and received money from. My iPhone has my CashApp card saved, which shares my data.
3:00a –
I start GPS directions to work so I can see my ETA.
I open my Apple Maps and click on my saved “Work” location to load up directions. I do this every single day, and on my way home, simply because I like to see my ETA. Apple knows my every move because of this and keeps a history log, which thankfully I can access within my phone settings.
I have an interesting opinion on this. I don’t like having my every move tracked by my phone. Yet, as a woman, I feel that it’s a protective measure. If I were to delete or turn off my phone’s access to my locations and something happened to me where my safety was in direct harm, I would want my partner (who has my passcode) and family to be able to see my last location, because they all have my location on Apple’s Find My.
3:40a –
I start my car and plug in my iPhone to connect to CarPlay and open Spotify and Maps.
My car tracks data and has cameras. A couple of days ago when I started my car it showed me these terms on tracking my data, and I declined. When I decline it tells me that certain features are not available in this mode, which has never presented a problem for me. It asks me this about once a month.
My car also has built-in GPS software that can see my location, even though I never use it as I use Apple Maps within CarPlay. All of this aside, my car has cameras. No hiding from that unless I get a different car without any data tracking or cameras. As we learn in this VPRO documentary, those cameras are tracking my route’s surroundings at all times.
CarPlay is owned by Apple and allows me to access some of my iPhone apps on my car’s touchscreen, such as Spotify and Maps. Since CarPlay is owned by Apple, I’m not giving another company access to my iPhone’s data… It’s already owned by Apple.
4:00a –
Clocked into my work shift. Logged into our POS system.
When I clock into work and log into our POS system, I enter my employee number plus my PIN code. This is directly connected to all of my personal information the company has, including my social security number.
9:00a –
I went to Trader Joe’s and used my debit card to pay.
I use my iPhone, Maps, CarPlay, and Spotify.
To pay for my groceries at Trader Joe’s, I inserted my debit card’s chip and entered my PIN. This leaves traces of my data at Trader Joe’s, instead of paying with cash and leaving no record of me in their system. By using my debit card, my bank knows where I shopped down to the location of the store. Apple knows I went there too.
10:00a –
Snapchat and Peacock.
Once I got home I hopped on Snapchat to watch some creators’ vlogs. Snapchat (Snap Inc.) has everything on me, data-wise. Maybe not everything, but close. I give the app permissions to my camera, microphone, iCloud camera roll (yes, all of my photos and videos), location, email, phone number, and more. Snapchat is known for its camera filters, which means they have data on my facial and voice biometrics. I have personalized ads turned off, but in retrospect, after knowing everything else they have access to, that seems so small and pointless. I still interact with promoted content and advertisements, even accidentally, with the slip of my thumb (great, now Snapchat thinks I want that product).
To access the streaming service, Peacock, I have to turn on my TV with my Fire Stick remote and navigate to the Peacock app to launch. Fire Stick is Amazon’s streaming device that connects to my WiFi and allows me to watch streaming services within its software. This essentially means that Amazon has access to my TV habits and data and can send me personalized ads on more shows and movies to watch.
11:30a –
Canvas and Notion.
Notion is a productivity software that uses hosting on Amazon Web Services. I looked into their privacy policy and found some information on data erasure. They say that their customers are “Controllers of their data”. It also says that our data on Notion is encrypted and lists security laws they comply with.
Here’s are two frequently asked questions they had listed about user data:
I noticed that Notion has an option way way way down at the bottom of the page in the footer, which you can find on this page, that allows you to opt out of them selling your information. When I clicked on it, this popped up:
2:00p –
YouTube.
Since YouTube is owned by Google (Alphabet), I have my account log-in connected to my Gmail account. YouTube shows me personalized ads based on my viewing history and how I navigate the app, such as tracking what videos I stop on to preview (behavior data). If I Google search for something or purchase something using my Gmail email address, I can usually guarantee I’ll see an ad for the brand or something similar in my YouTube ads.
2:30p –
Canvas and Notion.
4:30p –
Instagram.
I admittedly got lost in Instagram Reels for a little bit. Instagram is owned by Meta and is connected to Facebook, which I absolutely hate. Instagram is one of my least-used apps. I try to stay away from it since it can be addictive and put you in a trance watching entertaining content in a never-ending algorithm.
I never post anything, they don’t have access to my camera roll, and I have my camera and microphone turned off. It’s really just a throwaway account to watch cute cat videos on. I have a fake name but put my real email. I don’t allow them to have access to my phone number or contacts, mainly because I don’t want people to find me.
Aside from all of what I let them have, they have data on my behavior, searches, engagement, and more.
5:00p –
Canvas and Notion.
9:00p –
Apple Watch. Apple Watch update.
I usually only use my Apple Watch for workouts and I didn’t exercise today, so I didn’t check it until the end of the day just to see how many steps I had. I saw that it had a system update available, so I installed that. To install it I had to agree to user terms, which I blindly agreed to.
Even though I wasn’t actively using my watch all day, my Apple Watch was still tracking my biometric data while wearing it, including my heart rate.
9:30p –
I set my alarms in Apple’s Clock app.
The major theme I notice is that I’m passively allowing my data to be tracked just by using my car and my Apple devices. The star of this diary is Apple. To reflect on this, on a typical day I use Apple’s iPhone, MacBook, Watch, CarPlay, Maps, and the Clock app. But this is only what I’m considering as “active use”, this doesn’t count as what is going on passively like my location being tracked, health and activity trackers like heart rate, the people I talk to, the photos I take, what WiFi I’m connected to, and more.
After completing this diary, I’m more aware of what data is being tracked in my day-to-day life. I’m glad that I took this opportunity to look into some of the privacy and security policies of the media I use, it wasn’t as confusing as I had assumed. I’ll be checking company privacy policies more often now since they are fairly easy to read and understand. It’s nice knowing exactly what data they collect and helps me make educated choices on what I want to share and/or use. There are some things I can’t take immediate action on, like downgrading my car to a model without cameras or a touchscreen with GPS capabilities. So, I might reconsider some things I use, like Snapchat, but there are some things I unfortunately can’t change even though I’m reconsidering. Like my car choice.
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