Network Writing - Gwen West

This week I really enjoyed learning about network writing and seeing how versatile it is in the electronic literature world. Networks can be seen as both platforms and material, as well as social and technological  foundations. I thought it was interesting to think about how much of our modern communication and social interaction is mediated on networks and shaped by networked interactions (Rettberg, 152). Network writing is heavily focused on rethinking the way humans interact with media and technology. I liked Rettberg's point on how network writing helps us to take a step back to analyze and better understand the networked society that we are accountable for and have created together. 

This week, I am bringing TrackMeNot created by Daniel Howe and Helen Nissenbaum to the table. TrackMeNot is an internet plugin/browser extension that was designed to promote internet privacy for internet browsers that want to interrupt privacy violations. Users who install TMN send out internet searches like normal, but TMN would also send several queries that were linguistically similar to the user's original query. This made it impossible for browsers like Google to track individual search behavior  because TMN made their queries useless by sending out similar ones at the same time. I found this to be a super interesting approach to interrupting corporate control of the internet. It's cool that this can be used to promote privacy while also keep the search browsers' original purpose intact at the same time. 

https://www.trackmenot.io


Comments

  1. Dr. MMarch 26, 2023 at 4:23 PM

    Oh my. Take a look at Natalia's American Psycho entry. It illustrates why we need things like trackmenot! This idea of privacy on the network is something we could discuss for hours!

    ReplyDelete
  2. Cameron WhitneyMarch 27, 2023 at 11:42 AM

    Trackmenot sounds really interesting and useful! Your explanation of it is easy to understand and I'm glad I could learn about it through you! Do you think you'd consider using it?

    ReplyDelete
  3. NataliaMarch 28, 2023 at 7:39 AM

    After reading Dr. M's comment I decided to have a look at your project too! TrackMeNot is definitely a tool everyone should have. It's very scary to think about how Google views our content. Especially after looking at American Psycho I would highly encourage this extension!

    ReplyDelete

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