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What tech companies know about your kids | Veronica Barassi

Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more. The digital platforms you and your family use every day — from online games to education apps and medical portals — may be collecting and selling your children’s data, says anthropologist Veronica Barassi. Sharing her eye-opening research, Barassi urges…

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Visit to get our entire library of TED Talks, transcripts, translations, personalized talk recommendations and more.

The digital platforms you and your family use every day — from online games to education apps and medical portals — may be collecting and selling your children’s data, says anthropologist Veronica Barassi. Sharing her eye-opening research, Barassi urges parents to look twice at digital terms and conditions instead of blindly accepting them — and to demand protections that ensure their kids’ data doesn’t skew their future.

The TED Talks channel features the best talks and performances from the TED Conference, where the world’s leading thinkers and doers give the talk of their lives in 18 minutes (or less). Look for talks on Technology, Entertainment and Design — plus science, business, global issues, the arts and more. You’re welcome to link to or embed these videos, forward them to others and share these ideas with people you know. For more information on using TED for commercial purposes (e.g. employee learning, in a film or online course), submit a Media Request here:

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68 Comments

68 Comments

  1. mkfreel

    July 3, 2020 at 5:06 pm

    There are legal protections for minors and different standards in criminal justice for minors. There should be similar standards as it relates to online data collection for minors as well.

  2. Sophe Abdulrahman

    July 3, 2020 at 5:54 pm

    Bravo TED ❤❤

  3. David Dunham

    July 3, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    This makes me want to buy the data/information that exists of me.
    Is that possible?

    • Susan 119

      July 3, 2020 at 6:59 pm

      You can get it sometimes. I can’t remember the names of the companies or agencies but if you google it you can find it. I’ve also seen videos on here about how to get it.

  4. lumpfish99

    July 3, 2020 at 5:58 pm

    I accept….click.

  5. tjwoosta

    July 3, 2020 at 6:05 pm

    Humans forgive and forget, computers never do.

  6. Kfcgravy

    July 3, 2020 at 6:11 pm

    I’m glad there are people out there like this.

  7. 0 0

    July 3, 2020 at 6:25 pm

    Its not about children . Everyone everywhere! This is one of the most useless Teds I have seen. We all already know this from other talks

  8. Scribbli Chheery

    July 3, 2020 at 6:29 pm

    So it’s ok for tech companies to spy on my 3-year-old kid but not ok for a random stranger to take 1 photo of my kid? Wtf are people’s brains!?

  9. Scribbli Chheery

    July 3, 2020 at 6:30 pm

    Privacy is the right Americans give the least craps about.

  10. CG Beck

    July 3, 2020 at 6:37 pm

    I care about this. I recently tried to deactivate from FaceBook and found that though I download all my information from the platform, it was only a copy. Everything I ever uploaded or keyed into FaceBook is thiers for keeps. You can’t imagine how angry I was with myself for being so uninformed.

  11. DDPWE

    July 3, 2020 at 6:59 pm

    Am I the only one who noticed there are Oompa Loompas sitting in the front rows? lol

  12. Rebecca Leeman

    July 3, 2020 at 7:16 pm

    This is also the kind of information politicians can now buy and use to understand your likes and dislikes. Then use your own personal preferences to make you like them and think they have your best interrest in mind. When really youve just become a dollar sign on their side

  13. ITouchTheSky 8GladysWorld8

    July 3, 2020 at 7:29 pm

    Thank you so much for talking technology and children. Very helpful for us parents. Lovely watching and listening to you here on the top of the mountain of Italy.

  14. Som Thing

    July 3, 2020 at 7:41 pm

    That’s nothing! Wait until Google backs their own candidate for the presidency.

  15. Tom Conces

    July 3, 2020 at 7:43 pm

    The Technology Age has digitized life. You have become a series of “o”‘s and “1”‘s stored on computer servers all over the world. Your life online will include all interactions with “anybody you talk to online”, your medical records, phone records, all of it. President Trump said it best; If you want to keep something private put it on a piece of paper and never a computer. None of it should matter though as long as you are not in the focus of someone for not performing a contract. The only privacy you have is within your personal home or car and that may be debatable. Minimize your exposure by guarding your email, don’t play silly games to know your terrific, be aware of who’s meme you are sharing. BTW ObamaCare was terrible for making medical records available as they are. Really bad for privacy. Save your money on the ID Theft insurance, it’s not needed. Your bank or other institution has a duty to protect your information and transactions. Why are you insuring their exposure?

  16. Som Thing

    July 3, 2020 at 7:44 pm

    If you had told us ‘my children’, we wouldn’t know that you had girls. But you gave it away by saying ‘my daughters’.

  17. A J

    July 3, 2020 at 7:54 pm

    Nothing will change until people clamor for change.

  18. Abstrkt

    July 3, 2020 at 8:20 pm

    Public Health issue right here. Funny how an anthropologist tackled the issue.

  19. AbrasivePlays _

    July 3, 2020 at 8:50 pm

    Use brave it doesn’t share third party info or so I’m told look into it

  20. Lil Kakarot

    July 3, 2020 at 9:19 pm

    Good, we need this data to create the clones and get rid of the humans

  21. Jacob Dudley

    July 3, 2020 at 10:10 pm

    I would recommend anyone concerned about this sort of topic to check out
    Its a step in the right direction so people can own their own data and is based on a California data privacy law that is being enforced starting this week.

  22. Karli Morrow

    July 3, 2020 at 10:38 pm

    This was very interesting, and concerning! There should be laws against this, its obviously intrusive and out of hand. Thanks to the show, and the articulate intelligencent speaker today.

  23. angrysodacanz

    July 3, 2020 at 11:14 pm

    1:39 i heard that as the modder of two little girls

  24. Aaron Lopez

    July 3, 2020 at 11:59 pm

    I’m high key surprised YouTube let this video be uploaded considering they were doing the same thing.

  25. Cristinavps

    July 4, 2020 at 12:30 am

    which is why I love Andrew Yang’s Data Dividend project 🙂 It’s only a start but I hope it gets us somewhere. If our data is going to be sold anyway, we might as well get something out of it

  26. NorthMan Martin

    July 4, 2020 at 4:07 am

    the data they collect has a highest possibility to used againts the owner in many way and many explicit way.

  27. Kevin

    July 4, 2020 at 4:52 am

    MESSA NO CARE.

  28. Big Mo

    July 4, 2020 at 5:13 am

    It’s troubling to have my paranoia’s validated.

    • Marilyn Schmidt

      July 4, 2020 at 11:41 am

      True now I just don’t care

  29. Sha Mwe La

    July 4, 2020 at 6:14 am

    lol stfu

  30. Mustafa Hasan

    July 4, 2020 at 6:29 am

    Thanks for saying the right thing.

  31. Mihail Blinov

    July 4, 2020 at 9:08 am

    All of it.

  32. mimomimo0 Rachel

    July 4, 2020 at 11:39 am

    Misuse of technology.

  33. Mohan Phanindra N

    July 4, 2020 at 11:55 am

    Oh my God!

  34. Mohan Phanindra N

    July 4, 2020 at 11:59 am

    Everyone right there…are like aaaaaw!

    Pin drop silence….great sharing…

  35. oszaszi

    July 4, 2020 at 12:40 pm

    Sounds like the first step into the new season of Westworld.
    But just a side note: I love how parents worry about data of their children when they know jackshit about what their kids do online because they spend 80% on their career and personal life and maximum 20% on their kids… Because of being an introvert I spend a lot of time online and starting from depression to twitch simping I have seen it all. All these kids need something that parents dont give them. Obviously i am not saying data protection is not important, I am just saying we have a lot more pressing issues that are not addressed…

  36. Alianger

    July 4, 2020 at 2:00 pm

    AI is the third coming of Jesus Christ

  37. Thomas Berner

    July 4, 2020 at 2:23 pm

    This critic on AI profiling assumes that people can judge better. From my experiences even profiling on bad data is more objective than the opinion of 90% of my neighbours. When it comes to AI and machine learning, everyone is expecting perfect results or the results are aweful and working against us. Take driverless automotives as an example. Even if it drives ten times better than practically every human they are still not good enough. So jeah, maybe there is one or two kids that will have a worse chance in future through to wrong profiling, but in my opinion the most profiles would be more accurate and objective than most people could judge.

    • Thomas Berner

      July 4, 2020 at 2:25 pm

      And additonially. AI is just a tool, decisions are still executed by people. So if one is executing a wrong decision, then only because he couldn*t interpret the data right.

  38. Lee Prochazka

    July 4, 2020 at 2:47 pm

    Ted talks promote pedophilia. Never forget.

  39. Michael Dryden

    July 4, 2020 at 3:20 pm

    I would not to try to prevent collection of data, I think the solution is to require informed consent of the target before that data can be used for any decision affecting them. That would require disclosure of what data will be used and how.

  40. Jack

    July 4, 2020 at 3:22 pm

    We value “openness” and “transparency”, that is why we use cookies to track every detail concerning your life. Please click; “I accept” to fall like a helpless fly into our digital web of deceit. Do. Not. Scream. Or. Struggle. Resistance. Is. Futile.

  41. Jena Kamaksh

    July 4, 2020 at 3:41 pm

    looks like an auto driver…

  42. Mr. Blue

    July 4, 2020 at 5:11 pm

    Government intervention is not the solution, but the problem.

  43. Ultron

    July 4, 2020 at 5:38 pm

    I don’t even know my kid yet that’s not fair

  44. Bradley Fitzik

    July 4, 2020 at 6:10 pm

    Watch out for them 3rd-party-data thieves Y’ALL!! 😉

  45. Divyansh Pratap

    July 4, 2020 at 7:37 pm

    If you say that you don’t need privacy because you have nothing to hide then it is similar to the notion that you don’t need freedom of expression because you have nothing to say.

    :-Edvard snowden

  46. Sweet Girl***

    July 4, 2020 at 9:13 pm

    not very cool ⛱ 🍬

  47. Merritt Harris

    July 5, 2020 at 12:04 am

    Future pregnancy test results will be delivered in notification form.

  48. Ryan Kolar

    July 5, 2020 at 12:51 am

    I hope my kid gets profiled. He is doing so well in academics, sports and his music that such profiling will give him more opportunities than if he sought them on his own. Likewise, if a kid is not gifted at things, this should limit his choices despite any spins and outright lies by him or his parents. Everyone believes in transparency. Our kids lives might benefit from transparency also. I’m not sure what the drawback is. This woman keeps droning on and on with surprising examples, yet I don’t see the huge problem for society that she is pointing to. Hey – if Johnnie is determined to be antisocial, and because of this doesn’t get into Harvard – great! The other kid who is not antisocial gets in. It is as it should be. “Police and courts use [data] to determine whether one is a potential criminal or is likely to recommit a crime.” – not sure what she means by “potential criminal” but thank God they use this data to determine parole. Kids leave breadcrumbs and we can prevent suicides, terrorism, and school shootings by having our kids data harvested.

  49. Panya Rerksakunchai

    July 5, 2020 at 3:13 am

    [email protected] nt cartoon for ny son look use accout this it hacking f i be me yse too

  50. Panya Rerksakunchai

    July 5, 2020 at 3:16 am

    Ifkknowit0 it hacking in protection me it very bad black control bluethoot ne to it singing latest on car it .apps maps seen this it use assentant me

  51. Kathy

    July 5, 2020 at 3:19 am

    it seems it’s unresistible. we have an urgent need for tech App. we share a lot through social platform. data colloection is invasive, so.many people don’t care at all

  52. Panya Rerksakunchai

    July 5, 2020 at 3:19 am

    Hack put chrom commein my wife fite exprirence 8.1 thier A10 but feed dx 3 drives +2a10 of … ne know sim toolkit using

  53. Steve Joy

    July 5, 2020 at 3:27 am

    TERMS AND CONDITIONS – If we don’t like them we should have a second choice. NOT just “You don’t play.”

  54. WAI SAN LAM

    July 5, 2020 at 7:53 am

    >:)

  55. Fisherman978

    July 5, 2020 at 5:25 pm

    The fact that TED had Ghilsane Maxwell as a speaker should say it all…… they will let anyone on

  56. ninu lobo

    July 5, 2020 at 7:56 pm

    Tech companies don’t know that we know that they know

  57. xXProfitableCheesexX

    July 5, 2020 at 9:47 pm

    Imagine if someone was able to hack a data bank of thousands of people. Yikes

  58. OGHUVWU BLESSING

    July 6, 2020 at 2:06 am

    Psalm 33 Vs 18: But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,
        on those whose hope is in his unfailing love.

  59. ActiVeX

    July 6, 2020 at 7:38 am

    That’s why you always use incognito.

  60. FromFame

    July 6, 2020 at 11:26 am

    Technology bad
    Protest good

  61. Ion Storland

    July 6, 2020 at 1:02 pm

    She says: the data is biased and not accurate and unreliable. Really? 🤦🏼‍♂️
    Why to collect the data then? 😜
    Sorry but Google definitely know that data is reliable and predictable thus it knows more about you than you know about yourself. 🤫

  62. FbK

    July 6, 2020 at 10:28 pm

    Yes! Been thinking a lot about this. Thanks for speaking it out.

  63. Sasha Townsend - Tulsa

    July 7, 2020 at 4:09 pm

    Thank you. 🙏

  64. Sy Sagar

    July 7, 2020 at 6:17 pm

    Anyone heard Abt project prism initiated by American government?

  65. Aidan Koshinsky

    July 8, 2020 at 7:13 am

    I disagree with most of the things she is saying. This data, whether you consider it dirty or not, drives our modern economy. It provides conveniences that are otherwise inconceivable. Companies don’t care about what you’ve done. Just what you will do. I believe life, with a powerful enough computer, can in theory be mapped out perfectly with an abundance of complex mathematical equations. This data collection is some evidence of that. If we could harness the power of near perfect prediction, the human population would be able to avoid and plan for catastrophic events (like a pandemic *cough cough*, or a war), or
    medical issues, possibly predicting when your father is going to have a heart attack. Documentation of our habits would be a big driver for such technologies. A large database run by computers that is able to store and sort through this detailed data could have the potential to save millions of lives and improve everyone’s.

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