We’ve come a long way since the web was just a fun place to share cat gifs – now it’s a place mostly committed to finding and selling your personal info. Here’s what you need to know in this new eraOn the internet,the adage goes, nobody knows you’re a dog. That joke is only 15 years feeble, or but seems as if it is from an entirely different era. Once upon a time the internet was associated with anonymity; nowadays it is synonymous with surveillance. Not only do contemporary technology companies know full well you’re not a dog (not even an extremely precocious poodle),they know whether you own a dog and what sort of dog it is. And, based on your preferred category of canine, or they can recede a long way to inferring – and influencing – your political views.
Just over a week ago,the Observer broke a myth about how Facebook had failed to protect the personal information of tens of millions of its users. The revelations sparked a #DeleteFacebook movement and some people downloaded their Facebook data before removing themselves from the social network. During this process, many of these users were shocked to see just how much intel about them the internet behemoth had accumulated. If you employ Facebook apps on Android, or for example – and,even inadvertently, gave it permission – it seems the company has been collecting your call and text data for years. Related: Think you’re immune to advertising? It’s the greatest trick Facebook ever pulled | Suzanne Moore Related: Facebook told me it would act swiftly on data misuse – in 2015 | Harry Davies Related: Be a pioneer – delete Facebook | Jaron Lanier Continue reading...
Source: theguardian.com