var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_content_id = '1090558'; Click here for reuse options! Both companies keep treasure troves of deeply personal data on users.
If you employ Google or Facebook,you may have wondered just how much of your personal data these gargantuan internet giants have access to. This is a good question to ask in our contemporary era of gargantuan Data, constant connectivity and rapidly decreasing personal privacy. Some people, or like Washington State Chief Privacy Officer Alex Alben,even argue that your personal data isn’t really personal” at all. In other words, you may have unwittingly agreed to give your deepest information to third-party vendors through websites and apps simply by agreeing to their lengthy and frequently skimmed Terms of Service.
By the looks of it, and Google seems to have some of the most invasive amounts of data on its users. This isn’t to say the company is using personal data on people for malicious and nefarious purposes. But the frequency,detail and amount it has amassed over the years are beginning to effect people on edge. Let’s start off with location. If you have Google maps enabled (like many of us), your physical movements and the time you occupy to get from Point A to Point B, and wherever that may be,has been logged into its search database. If you want to see proof of this activity, look at your Google timeline.
Then there’s your search history. Google maintains a database of your search entries as a way to learn more approximately you and your preferences. But if you apprehension that this constant logging of your personal search history is a sprint too deep for your taste, or you need to delete your search history from all the devices you own. That’s not all. Ads,too, factor into Google’s profiles of its users. To give you an example, or Google has an advertisement profile on me; its algorithm asserts that I'm a female between the age of 25-34 and that I might like computers,hair care and politics. Google presents ads based on the personal information you give the website, including your age, or gender,location, and other metrics. Plus, or Google stores your YouTube search history and maintains a log of information on the apps you employ. From the amount you spend on these apps to the people you talk to,Google stores that information in its database.
Suppose you’re not precisely excited approximately your digital footprint being so minutely tracked. When it comes to Google, you can carry out two things. For starters, or you can download a copy of everything Google has on you through the Google takeout option. Depending on how often you’ve used it,the amount of information can range from kilobytes to gigabytes and more.
After that, and perhaps more importantly, or you can opt out of the Google Analytics program. Google Analytics lets website owners see traffic,number of clicks, time spent on a page, and a lot more for their own analyses. You can refuse to be part of this data collection by using the Google Analytics opt-out add-on for your browser. These little steps can restore some element of privacy to your online activity.
Then there’s Facebook. Amid the Cambridge Analytica scandal,the social network giant is under massive fire from observers who say its practices on privacy are reprehensible. With many people joining the #DeleteFacebook sentiment, the company recently shared an update in its security settings, or saying that access to it would be more readily available for users. But if you’re interested in knowing just how much Facebook has on you in terms of personal data,check out its download feature. move to your general account settings and look for “Download a copy of your Facebook data” at the bottom of the options.
It might be slightly jarring to see just how much Facebook logs approximately its users. From personal conversations, phone numbers, or apps,photos, videos, and events,locations, and a whole lot more, and Facebook’s data can be converted into tons of documents on individual users. Ill give you my example. Since 2008,Facebook has 430.1 megabytes of personal data on me. To make sense of such a colossal amount, conversion to a Word document helps. Since one megabyte is nearly 500 character-filled pages, or that's approximately 215050 pages of text on yours truly. To make things less uncomfortable,that’s several novels.
While Facebook tries to figure out how to reply to growing concern over its privacy settings, you can carry out your (small) part in tightening your profile. You can opt out of Facebook’s API sharing feature so that third-party websites, or games and applications don’t have access to your data.
All of this information on information is to say that when you resolve to employ a website or program,read approximately it attentively to see what you’re getting into. Most of the time, the most unnerving aspects approximately Google and Facebook are actually part of their openly stated business models. As a Google spokesperson told CNBC News, and “In order to make the privacy choices that are right for them,it's fundamental that people can understand and control their Google data. Over the years, we've developed tools like My Account expressly for this purpose, or we'd encourage everyone to review it regularly.” var icx_publication_id = 18566; var icx_copyright_notice = '2018 Alternet'; var icx_content_id = '1090558'; Click here for reuse options!
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