1. The window alert will read "Do or do not, there is no try."
2.
Summary of Article:
The NYT article titled "How companies learn your secrets", written by author Charles Duhigg,
discusses both statistical analysis within corporations as the formation of habits. The article uses the
example of Target and how they collect and analyze immense amounts of data. In the article, Andrew
Pole, a statistician for Target, talks about how he’d been assigned the task of finding out whether or not
a woman is pregnant and if so how they can market baby related products to these women. Targets
interest in pregnancies stems from the idea that when expecting a baby, customers are more responsive
to change, and thus, can be easily influenced into having Target serve as their go to store for all their
material needs. Target wants the task of shopping at their store to become as habitual as backing out of
a driveway.
Duhigg then began analyzing what made an action habitual. He used the example of a study in
which lab rats were trained to run a maze in order to eventually reach a reward (in this case chocolate).
As the rats continuously repeated the maze, their actions required less thinking. The study showed that
the times where their brain activity was most active was when the gate leading to the maze was
lowered (the cue) and when the rats finished the maze and found the chocolate (the reward). These
cues and rewards are what form habits. Duhigg then goes on to back up his claim by using both the
example of P.& G. and their attempts to market Febreze as well as his own attempts to quit his habit of
eating a cookie each day. Both of these examples, much like the lab rats, had specific cues and
examples.
Duhigg then ties everything back to the main topic of Target by discussing statistician Andrew
Poles attempts to find the data that would tell whether or not a woman was pregnant (this was found
by analyzing recently bought items) and with that, the cues and rewards that would influence them into
shopping at Target more often. In the end, the cues became coupons sent to the customers while the
rewards were the buying of the item.
Opinion of Targets Practices:
Having read the article, I have mixed opinions on Targets attempts to gather as much
information as they can on their customers. On one hand, I am perfectly ok with corporations trying to
specifically cater to my wants and needs. The way I see it, if I’m going to be getting ads from them either
way, I’d rather the ads be about something that I actually care about. On the other hand, I could easily
imagine a scenario in which this information could be misused (e.g. that time Sony had a lot of its
customer’s credit information stolen).
In the end, so long as companies take the protective measures to secure the information that
they collect about their customers, I have no problems with them analyzing my shopping habits. On the
topic of habits, I also found it interesting that habits require not only a reward, but a cure. Using a
personal example, I’ve been trying to run five times a week since the beginning of this quarter and until
a week ago, I’ve been successful. I noticed however, that after I was forced to change when I went
running, I began doing so less and less. This backs up the claim that specific cues (the time at which I
ran) can have drastic effects on the frequency of habits.
3. Investigate a social media source:
Source: Imgur
Discussion: I chose to look at the privacy policies of the image sharing website Imgur. Finding
the actual privacy policy page was easy enough and as far as I can tell, they took no active steps to hide
such information. When discussing the information collected, they state “Our servers log information
about each computer connecting with our site such as IP address, device characteristics, operating
system, browser type, type of connection, page and image viewing statistics, and incoming and outgoing
links.” What I find interesting about this quote was the use of the phrase “such as”, implying that they
collect more information than what was listed (though to be fair, the actual list of information would
probably end up being longer than anyone would care to read). I also find it interesting that the page
makes constant use of the word “may” (e.g. “We may use cookies”, “we may partner with third party
advertisers”, “These companies may use information about your visits to this and other sides”). This I
feel, creates a feeling of uncertainty in the mind of the reader and can thus shift some of the discomfort
felt towards the collecting of this data away from Imgur. What I appreciate about the page however, are
the instances in which they offer more information on the subject, allowing readers to better
understand what is being said. I also appreciate how they explain ways in which visitors to this site can
“block these cookies”. The page also clearly states that what Imgur collects is entirely up to the user and
that they are responsible for “taking every reasonable precaution on your end”. This again shifts blame
away from Imgur and instead explains that you decide what is collected.