Renowned author and social media, computing, and privacy expert, Dr. Jen Golbeck, gave a Reddit AMA last year. We have combed some of the most interesting insights and resources and collected them here for you to review and dive into!

– Check out her TED talk, The curly fry conundrum: Why social media “likes” say more than you might think, about prediction of behaviors, characteristics, and actions based on social media data[i]

– Interested in Machine Intelligence, social media mining, and how information and networks interact, particularly on the web? Check out the work of Jon Kleinberg, Professor of Computer Science and Information Science at Cornell University[ii]

– Consider checking out Kleinberg’s EdX course, Networks, Crowds, and Markets

– Interested in learning more about what can be deduced from your published words on Twitter? Visit AnalyzeWords, enter your Twitter handle, and learn about the dimensions of your personality that are revealed in the resulting analysis[iii]

– Learn the “science behind” the algorithm while you are there: http://www.analyzewords.com/science.php and check out the additional resources available at the bottom of the page

– Interested in blocking cookies? Consider DoNotTrackMe http://www.abine.com/donottrackme.html, amongst others. Keep Golbeck’s note in mind: “this sometimes means sites don’t work, so I have a second browser running to hit the occasional site that won’t function with all my blockers”[iv]

– Interested in learning how Golbeck has kept her social media information cleaned/pruned to serve her data protection interests? Read her article published on Slate^[v]

Find Golbeck’s latest release, Introduction to Social Media Investigation, and numerous other Elsevier titles at Police Technical’s online library.  Police Technical is a solutions provider for law enforcement professionals, offering a range of services to support training, professional development, and knowledge and expertise creation.

About the Author

Jennifer Golbeck (twitter: @jengolbeck) Ph.D Is an Associate Professor in the College of Information Studies and Director of the Human-Computer Interaction Lab at the University of Maryland, College Park. Her research interests include social network and social media analysis, recommender systems, trust on the web, human computer interaction and and how to use social relationships to improve the way people interact with information.

She was named as one of IEEE Intelligent System’s “Top Ten to Watch”, is a Research Fellow in the Web Science Research Initiative and is a sought after speaker on social media. Jen is also s a frequent contributor for Slate Magazine and The Atlantic.

She is author of Introduction to Social Media Investigation available for a 30% discount when using discount code “STC215” at checkout.

When not blogging, writing, teaching of giving talks, Jen is an avid tracker of the zombie apocalypse.

[i] jengolbeck [Jen Golbeck]. “I’m a computer scientist studying creepy things we can do with your online data – AMA.” Reddit, 27 May 2014. Web.  16 Sept. 2015.

[ii] jengolbeck [Jen Golbeck]. “I’m a computer scientist studying creepy things we can do with your online data – AMA.” Reddit, 27 May 2014. Web.  16 Sept. 2015.

[iii] jengolbeck [Jen Golbeck]. “I’m a computer scientist studying creepy things we can do with your online data – AMA.” Reddit, 27 May 2014. Web.  16 Sept. 2015.

[iv] jengolbeck [Jen Golbeck]. “I’m a computer scientist studying creepy things we can do with your online data – AMA.” Reddit, 27 May 2014. Web.  16 Sept. 2015.

[v] jengolbeck [Jen Golbeck]. “I’m a computer scientist studying creepy things we can do with your online data – AMA.” Reddit, 27 May 2014. Web.  16 Sept. 2015.