94
RECL AIM
YOUR
ONLINE
PRIVACY
I
fthe internetage has shown us anything, it’sthat
youare exceptionally valuable. Yo ur private
information and what you’reinterested in is of
huge value to companies, often to better sell
advertising. Beyond that, data lets companies know
what people like, so theycan ‘better’ serveyou products
and automatically push contentinfront of you.
It’sall very clever, but it means that the internetfeels
less and less secure, and moreofour private lives are
eroded in the process.
There’s worse, too. Companies arestoring infinite
amounts of data, keeping things forever,building up
moredetailed profiles on each of us. When companies
gethacked –and theyoften do –it’sour data that gets
leaked to the bad guys.
We shouldn’t havetotakeit, and in this guide we’ll
showyou howtomaintain as much privacyasyou
possibly can. To do that, thereare twomain areas that
havetobetackled. First, there’s the information that
youvoluntarily share, say by signing up foraGoogle
accountand using that company’sservices. Then there’s
the data that is taken fromyouwithout consent,
whether it’sfingerprinting your browser to track youor
big data working out what you’reinterested in.CONTENTS
96 GOOGLE ANDSEARCH
98 SOCIALMEDIA
(^100) ADTRACKING
(^102) PERSONALASSISTANTS
104 GDPR
Threats to your privacyare coming thick and
fast from multiple sources.David Ludlow
outlines the ways that youcan reclaim your
privacyand take back controlofyour data