Six Ways to Share Less of Your Personal Information
Sometimes it seems that privacy as a concept has disappeared from the world. Advertisers seem to know everything about you, serving up eerily accurate ads that make you think your phone’s microphone is on, and marketers are actively listening to your every mutter.
That’s not true—yet. But they do something called ” data mining ,” which is the process of collecting huge amounts of anonymous data about every single activity you do, and then analyzing that data to infiltrate your life through advertising and other influences. And it’s not just corporate America : criminals can get your information to rob you.
If this bothers you (and it should), you can take some steps to minimize data mining in your life. You can’t completely avoid it unless you plan to live off-grid and without an internet connection, but you can reduce the risk of infection. After all, it’s your data, you don’t get any compensation for it, and it’s creepy that some anonymous marketing team knows you’re really into RPGs and craft beer.
Read these license agreements
One of the main sources of collecting your data is your smartphone, especially the applications you have installed on it. Every time you install an application, you agree to its terms – the end user license agreement (EULA) and other requirements.
The first line of defense against data mining is to take the time to review these license agreements. You can’t negotiate, but if you see yourself being asked for full permission to send data back to the mothership, you can at least look for an alternative. Key warning signs that an app is just a data collection tool include allowing it to track your online activity, explicitly collect personal information, or use your computer or device for its own purposes. If you see something that makes you hesitate, think twice before agreeing.
Check your settings
When you install an app on your device, you’ll likely click on a series of permissions that give that app access to everything it needs to collect data about you. This is a goldmine in the field of data mining.
For example, a few years ago, an investigation found that about 5,400 applications were siphoning data from just one person’s smartphone—a total of 1.5 gigabytes of data. And back in 2017, app developer Alphonso was caught monitoring what people were watching on TV by activating the microphone on their smartphones.
If an app requires a lot of unnecessary permissions, does the game really need access to your microphone, location, and camera? – you have to assume that this is more of a data collection app than anything else. Your next line of defense: stop installing junk apps and spend that dollar. Every app wants to make money from you, and if you don’t pay upfront, you pay in some other way, most likely by deleting your data.
Being boring on social networks
It’s clear that social media is a dumpster fire when it comes to privacy. You’re literally posting a photo of yourself in a store with the hashtag #LiveToShop, so don’t be surprised when ads for that store start popping up everywhere in your life.
If you’re concerned about data mining, there are a few simple steps you can take to limit data miners’ access to your social media:
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Make your profile private. If your main goal on social media is to communicate with friends or colleagues, limit your posts to only these people.
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Be a snob. Don’t accept every communication request you receive—if you don’t know the person, they don’t need to be brought into your inner circle.
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Prudence. Don’t throw out your travel plans, spending habits, or product reviews for everyone to see.
Using social media puts your privacy at risk, but if you’re mindful of what information data miners are looking for, you can at least avoid simplifying it.
Go out
When you log into platforms like Google or Facebook, that platform can track what you’re doing quite easily. And as long as you are logged in, this option remains even if you leave the site. These companies are actually data mining companies and they have perfected the art of following you.
It’s not an easy task, but logging out of these services when you’re not actively using them (as well as regularly clearing your cookies and browsing history) can slow down data clearing. This is inconvenient by design, but it has a real impact on how much information is mined from your online activities.
Avoid memes
Data mining isn’t just about advertisers selling your content. Fraudsters can also use it as a weapon to obtain personal information, which they can use to rob you blind, steal your identity, or steal your identity and then rob you blind.
One easy way to do this is to simply wait for you to respond to the phishing meme . These memes look like innocent, fun quizzes where you provide some seemingly innocuous bits of personal information and get a chuckle in return. Common examples include posting your “porn name” (a combination of common answers to security questions, such as your middle name, the model of your first car, or something similar) or using the last digits of your phone number to perform math tricks.
Luckily, there is an easy way to avoid data mining with phishing memes: ignore the memes. Either way, your life will actually get better.
Technical solutions
One of the most effective ways to reduce the impact of data mining requires a little more effort. There are various privacy tools that can really stop your data from flowing into the insatiable marketing black hole:
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VPN. VPNs are useful for privacy because they hide your location and IP address , making it much more difficult for data miners to correlate the resulting data. Because your data comes from so many random places, it’s impossible to build a consistent profile of your preferences and habits. Installing a VPN on your computer, phone, and devices will go a long way in cutting off the flow of personal information.
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Thor. The Tor Browser routes your web traffic through multiple encrypted nodes, making it nearly impossible for anyone to track your online travels. If you really want to hide, combine Tor with a VPN and you’ll become virtually invisible. If you’re not ready to use Tor as your everyday browser, use a privacy-focused browser like DuckDuckGo or Brave , or at least adjust the privacy settings in your browser to make it as secure as possible.
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Ad blockers. Almost every website you visit tracks your activities and collects data about you. While using a privacy browser is an effective way to suppress this, ad blocking plugins can go the extra mile by completely preventing intrusive access to your browsing.