In these 2 to 4 hours a day the user is constantly receiving and sending data (source vox.com). Where does the data go? Where are they kept and how are they used?

By analyzing the ads, we received throughout our navigation, we were able to understand what is already known to us. Usually on my computer and personal smartphone they are all about fashion, makeup, dogs, video games etc ... For now, they know my gender and that I am young enough, and then I am bombarded with articles that my peers consume. I manage to ignore most of them, but suddenly I get the perfect ad when browsing the web pages - now with a discount for a specific brand of boots I want. There it was a perfect box there on my favorite website of articles about restaurants in Lisbon. I think half a second before I click, and when I click, I think: - I can't believe it! This is the model and they have my number! How did they know? And worse than that, recently I didn't go to the boot store page.

About a month before I actually went to the website of this brand, I search and search - when I found it, I spent about 2 minutes looking at the conditions, reviewing the price, seeing more photos and other color options. But I saw the price and quickly forgot the desire. But here they are, 2 months later at half the price ... I suspect! In reality there is nothing suspicious, but rather to do with AI (Artificial Intelligence). The new ads keep track of what we navigate, recommend what our peers want and try to get our attention with notifications repeatedly.

These recommendation systems are not human, just machines doing what they should. Recommend. Every day they evaluate millions of patterns, thousands of hypotheses with users and discover for themselves through the data that we facilitate for free for them to grab us.

The reality of our times is that every extra click and second that we spend looking at that “image” we are teaching this machine that this “image” is important and is immediately recommended to thousands of other users (similar to me).

Perhaps it is time for us to communicate more with each other, ask for opinions and read recommendations that seem true to us. It is not always easy, but if we are aware that we are no longer being recommended, but slightly manipulated, we are closer to making the internet evolve. It is up to all of us - web designers, engineers, marketers and users to understand what is happening in our online life - and create a more humane internet.