ICT News

Have you noticed how often you check your phone during the day?  Maybe pick it up to send a quick message and end up watching a few funny videos instead? When getting you coffee, you might spend a few minutes catching up on various sites or chatting online with friends.  When you walk do you listen to a book? Exercise using an app to support your progress? 

Technology keeps us connected, entertained and curious, as if it is all part of our normal busy day. If you are like me I am a ‘user’ in these platforms and if you are, again like me, have a rough idea of how much data these big companies actually store and collect. 

To really understand what happens with our information, we’d have to read the long and often tedious ‘Terms of Agreement’ that come with very app or website we join. These documents are full of legal details that change all the time, but when we click ‘I agree’ we are saying yes to things like: - What we can and can’t do as users - How much responsibility the company takes when something goes wrong - What happens if we close or lose our account - Who owns the photos, videos, or ideas we share - How our privacy and data are protected - How problems or complaints are sorted out - How and when the terms might change - Australian and other governing laws.

 It’s a lot to take in and most of us just scroll and tap ‘agree’. In doing some research on how I can best manage what I have subscribed to I have found the following website (yes I know another one!) that provides easy-to-understand summaries.  

This may be of some use to you. Use the link below to access summaries. https://tosdr.org/en

Suzanne Pola

College Leader - ICT/Alumni