New Media M.A. Research Blog | Media Studies, University of Amsterdam

Have You Gone Green? INFRAWARE as a Digital Intervention for Environmental Awareness

INFRAWARE (composed of the words infrastructure, awareness and hard/software) is a browser plug-in that displays how your personal use of technology is deeply entangled with the planet’s resources and the environmental crisis we are currently experiencing. Go green. Paperless...

By on 10/23/19 Comments Off

The Personalization – Privacy Paradox of the Meditation App Balance

Meditation has been practiced for more than 5000 years, but the last decade people have started meditating with the help of their smartphones. With the arrival of the internet people progressively are sharing and seeking help for their mental...

By on 09/29/19 Comments Off

Is Apple our Online-Privacy Vigilante?

Abstract: Apple purports that its new Intelligent Tracking Prevention Technology integrated in Safari browser prevents 3rd-party cookies from collecting users’ data, therefore, reducing online ads, and ultimately protecting users’ privacy. This paper challenges this by arguing that ITP’s functionality...

By K. Abdulghani on 09/24/17 Comments Off

Fitness tracking with TomTom: an attempt to regain market control

TomTom used to be one of the most important players in the field of navigational systems. With the arrival of google maps and other “free” navigators, TomTom was no longer the number one navigational device. TomTom was founded in...

By Lisanne Blomberg on 10/18/16 Comments Off

From Chocolate Chips to Online – Creating a Cookie Monster

Project by: Daniël Landman, Nick van der Meulen, Nicola Romagnoli and Seastar So. Link to Final Project. Cookies are the most well-known form of online tracking and can be used for a variety of reasons such as recording personal...

By Daniël Landman on 10/16/15 Comments Off

Spy me, please!

A project, brought to you by Afra Suci Ramadhon, Alina Niemann, Kimberly Leerkes, Kyra Teklu and Radina Teodosieva The exhibitionist beginning Several weeks ago we were presented with an assignment - to create a new media project, intervening an...

By Radina Teodosieva on 10/16/15 Comments Off

Give us your data and you will never walk alone

Last week, five students from the University of Michigan launched (Mashable, Tech Times, Business Insider) a smartphone application called Companion. This application enables users to be accompanied by their contacts to virtually walk them home at night. The so-called...

By Atossa Atabaki on 09/14/15 Comments Off

The Internet is now built on mass surveillance

Brought to light in recent months, the Edward Snowden-powered NSA leaks have publicized the wholesale spying efforts by US and UK intelligence agencies that undermine the very fabric of the Internet – turning it into a vast surveillance program...

By Nicholas Vieira on 09/09/13 1

App review: Prey – open source anti-theft solution for PCs, Macs, and phones

Prey lets you keep track of your phone or laptop at all times, and will help you find it if it ever gets lost or stolen. It’s lightweight, open source software, and free for anyone to use. And it...

By Daniel Luiz dos Santos on 10/10/11 2