You may have heard conversations about search history, apps on your phone tracking you, or things called cookies. But what kind of information do they gather and why does it matter?
Why Privacy Matters
When people think about privacy they may think of trying to hide something nefarious. “Only people with something to hide care about privacy.” But online privacy is much more than that. The data being gathered by your online activities is being combined into demographic packages based on age, gender, race, if you’re a parent, in a relationship, or really any category they can come up with and track. This data is then used by the company gathering it and often sold to anyone with the financial means to buy it.
The way your data is sold means you can’t really control who is buying it and what they are using it for. And it can be used for even darker purposes than trying to get you to like a product, company, or stance on an issue. This data, including location information, may end up in the hands of someone who hates you just for your citizenship, race, or religion. It could be used by a stalker or to harass you. The data gathered can also be used to steal your identity. This means online privacy is something everyone should care about.
Search and Websites
When you go to a site like Google and type in a search term, Google retains not only that search but also your IP address, which is computer information that can be used to identify your location. In addition, information is often shared with the site you click on within the search results. If you happen to be logged into your Google account that information can even include your name and email address.
Other websites you visit are also very interested in you as a product they can sell. As a general rule online, if you’re not paying for it, you are the product being sold. Websites download tracking information called cookies to your computer. While these can be helpful in terms of loading websites faster or remembering items in your shopping cart, they can also record sites you visit, viewing preferences, location and duration of website visit.
Cell Phone Apps
Cell phone apps are also scrounging up your information. That time you opened the Delta app on your phone to check-in for a flight? Delta also gathered other information including: GPS coordinates, email address, a unique identifier assigned to you, cell phone model, and network connection type.
Often these are sent to third party advertising companies that continue to build a profile about you. Not only will Delta use this information but these third party companies will sell your information to other companies. And it’s not just Delta but most apps on your phone that gather this data. This is regardless of app size or cost and it happens even when you’re not using the app.
What You Can Do About This
The internet and apps are an important part of everyday life. So how can you take back some control over your data and your privacy? Fortunately there are several steps you can take. Let’s start with some easy ones that are also set and forget:
Easiest
Turn Off Google Tracking
Go to your Google Account homepage, click on “Data and Privacy” or “Manage your data & Privacy” and then select Web & App Activity. Once there, click the “Turn off” button.
Do the same for “Location History” and, further down the page “My Ad Center,” and “Personal results in Search.”
This does mean that you’ll see less personalization in the ads and suggestions Google sends you, but this also means Google will not be gathering as much information about you including your web browsing habits and your constant whereabouts.
Turn Off Ad ID Tracking on Cell Phones
Both Apple and Android phones have ways to make it harder for third parties to track your mobile device activities and your location. The Electronic Frontier Foundation has some great steps on how to do this for both Android and Apple cell phones.
More Effort But Worth It: Content Filtering and Ad Blocking
This requires a bit more work and awareness. Pop-up blockers can make browsing the internet on a computer much more pleasant by blocking annoying pop-ups and ads that websites scatter all over the place. Tracker blockers greatly limit the data websites can gather about your online activities. Unfortunately, some websites will prevent you from using their site properly if you try to use a pop-up blocker. This means that you might need to use another browser or something along the lines of Google’s Incognito mode if a website is not functioning properly. Still, the benefits from ad blocking alone may make these extensions worth the time and effort involved.
There are several extensions that block ads from popping up and hinder tracking activities. At their best these ads can be annoying but at their worst, they can infect your computer. uBlock Origin is a great example of a browser extension that will not only improve your experience online, but also increases your privacy and safety as well.
Good To Do But Can Cause Complications: Change Your Default Search Engine
Google tends to be the default search engine for most people which allows them to gather data about individuals and their searches. To prevent Google from doing this you can change your search engine to DuckDuckGo. DuckDuckGo is a privacy minded company who has gone to great lengths to prevent as much data gathering as possible. DuckDuckGo works well for most searches and using it greatly decreases the data Google can gather about you and sell, although you may still occasionally find yourself returning to Google for better search results. Follow these instructions to change your default search engine for Chrome. That page also includes links to instructions for other browsers as well.
Additional resources on privacy:
