How to Protect Your Privacy in the Age of Data Mining
Privacy isn't a toy to play around with. Many people fall victim to identity theft from putting too much on their Facebook profile or make their children targets of pedophilia. Its easy to dismiss the possibility of this happening to you but really, thats the type of person who falls most: the "I'm different" or "Can't be me". And while people see these reports of lives falling apart thanks to criminal activity taking advantage of Facebook, the company itself is doing some devious work in the back. However, there is another behemoth with its eyes on the same prize and thats Google. Read on and you'll understand if not already.
Many of us have grown accustomed to Google or Facebook owning our digital lives, everyday we log onto their services and give these companies massive troves of data that are personally identifiable. We trust these companies to protect our information and we expect them to be responsible with it. Unfortunately though, They have made it clear to us all that privacy is the least of their concerns. Sure, it may be a major turn off to give up the beloved Google Search and YouTube or your deleting Facebook and Instagram for good, but if you care about privacy at all then it's time to wake up.
Let’s Begin With Facebook.
Facebook has become a monolithic machine of information, data, and privacy invading thats only been getting worse. It’s incredibly complex algorithms have been running the background, looting the information of the 2.2 Billion users only to turn around and sell it to basically anyone who has the money for it. One of the most bone chilling examples of this is Facebook's ability to recognize when a woman is pregnant even before she knows herself. Thats right. Facebook algorithms can watch on people’s activities such as how long they spend on a post, search up certain phrases, react to certain images, and thousands of other factors. The end result? Facebook sells this information to third party users with no accountability of protecting it so they can target you with ads all over the internet and in the real world. Facebook also keeps the information to target you with this own ads, in this case it's baby items. But its not only pregnancy these algorithms are made to look out for, Facebook has been able to use these tools to figure things out such as secret relationships, sexual orientation, political preferences, biases, favorite colors, people you like/dislike, addictions, etc. all the while you search your feed. And while that might not sound scary as it is,
Facebook’s business model isn’t actually to sell advertisements but to actually sell personal, identifiable information. That way entities who give Facebook money for information as specific as “Women between the age of 18-21, living in New York, in a relationship, and hates the Trump administration” will be able to target you with anything from ads that spam you with content praising the Trump administration so it can sell a shirt that says “Make America Great Again”.
But it doesn’t end there. Aside from algorithms, Facebook uses information such as your location, interests, friends, previous jobs or schools (that you so generously provide them) to store on their servers. That way, when you open your Instagram app while hanging out with friends, Facebook will be able to tell that “you were with so and so at 4pm at the food court in the mall” and will conveniently show you ads for a store in the food court. And of course, if someone happens to be interested in information about the mall’s shoppers (potential shop owners) they could purchase your data (your 4pm hangout session) and use it to their advantage.
Perhaps an even scarier method Facebook uses happens to deal with your spending. When buying things in person, companies sell data of purchases that people make to other companies or people. Usually this information is purchased with the intent of indexing the popularity of an item but Facebook purchases this information to link buying habits to certain people. For example: Whole Foods sells to Facebook a report that includes the line “Purchase of Kleenex for $2.99 on August 10th”. Facebook can take this information and link it to a potential user who had location tracking on and went to a Whole Foods on August 10th and made that purchase. Even worse, if you linked your credit/debit card to Facebook for any reason, they can now use that to further track buying habits.
This would all be fine (not really) but with cases such as Cambridge Analytica obtaining our information from Facebook by buying and mining it, they have been able to potentially target hundreds of millions people with their agenda.
I could go on but then this would be a 90 page essay and I’m quite frankly not interest in that. The point is, Facebook is only interest in profits and not responsibly handling our data. So delete your account and more importantly, sign the petition to slap Facebook with an anti-trust lawsuit: http://freedomfromfb.com
But be warned, even after deleting your account Facebook will continue to collect your information just like it does with everyone who has never even had an account to begin with. Thats why it’s so important to break Facebook up. With first party access to the servers of Instagram (1 Billion Monthly Users) WhatsApp (1.5 Billion Monthly Users) (Messenger 1 Billion Monthly Users) and the Facebook user base of 2.23 Billion monthly users, it’s become a threat to everyone. But it doesn’t end there: Websites that contain the “Share on Facebook” or “Like on Facebook” button also track you and send information to Facebook even without clicking the buttons or having an account at all. This means potentially all your web activity is tracked by Facebook whether you like it or not.
Facebook also uses facial recognition to learn your facial features. This is implemented in Messenger and heavily used in Instagram.
Facebook has also been trying to partner with Banks in the United States so they can gain first party access to our personal information such as social security, credit scores, credit/debit card numbers, every single purchase, and more.
People have also caught Facebook using their phone's camera and microphone without their consent so at the very least, disable these permissions entirely.
Questionable Facebook Patents:
Eye Tracking: http://www.alphr.com/facebook/1009598/facebook-eye-tracking-patent
TV Habits/ Ad Tracking: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2018/jun/28/facebook-patent-phone-mic-listening-tv-shows
And 7 Creepiest Patents: https://www.nytimes.com/interactive/2018/06/21/opinion/sunday/facebook-patents-privacy.html
(Personality Indexing, Relationship Reading, Routine Tracking, etc)
Google Isn’t Pretty Either.
Yes, the company we all know and love that provides us with Google Search, Google Maps, Google Assistant, Google Cloud, and Youtube isn’t any better. While Google has a much different approach to obtaining your information, it’s end goal isn’t much better than Facebook’s. Rather than buying/selling massive amounts of data or using algorithms in the background of your Facebook Feed to learn deep secrets about you, Google provides you with some very necessary platforms and products that make it very easy for you to unknowingly give away your data. Every time you open Google Search, News, Finance, Chrome, Drive, Gmail, YouTube, and hundreds of other products, they document it and everything you do in it. After years of using Google products they end up with a very massive, detailed, database of you. They will have every photo you stored, search you looked up, video you watched (and for how long), person you subscribed/followed, link you clicked, website you visited (and for how long), email you sent, and thousands of other
data points. The files they end up having on you amount to hundreds of gigabytes. All of which they use to target you with ads. But the happy side is that they don’t sell this data like Facebook. Still horrifying.
Researchers have found out that Google services have been tracking all it's user's locations even when they have disabled them. Read here: http://www.spokesman.com/stories/2018/aug/13/google-tracks-location-data-even-when-users-turn-s/
Internet Service Providers
A quick PSA that I won’t go too in-depth with has to deal with the companies that provide you internet. Thats right, your super expensive internet isn’t enough to purge your ISP’s thirst for money. They can see and sell everything you do on the internet such as websites you visit, applications you download, and more. You can stop this by using a VPN.
What Can You Do?
There are hundreds of things you can do. Lets list them out.
First and foremost, buy or use a VPN. VPNs or Virtual Private Networks encrypt and redirect traffic away from the prying eyes of your ISP (Internet Service Provider) so they don’t see any of the websites you visit. Some of the most popular VPNs include
Betternet.com , HotspotShield.com , and TunnelBear.com. Betternet and Hotspot Shield both offer unlimited free VPN with the choice for a faster, more secure connection with a monthly plan. TunnelBear offers 500MB a month for free.
Delete your Facebook account. Plain and simple, Facebook’s data selling policy shouldn’t be tolerated so leave their network to greatly reduce how much data they can mine out of you.
Don’t use Instagram, WhatsApp, or Messenger. Instead use iMessages/Android Messages or SMS to keep up with close friends and family. For private chats with others you don’t want having your number, use Telegram or Discord. Snapchat/Zenly is the best Is the best alternative that has the best features for close friends but both collect data, not nearly as much though. Twitter has similar content to Instagram without all the Facebook spying, though they still collect data so use a pseudonym (fake name) and never enable contacts or location sharing.
As mentioned above, sign the FreedomFromFB.com petition, if we can break Facebook up then maybe we can all begin using Instagram, WhatsApp and Messenger without being sold to people. Liberate the people and enable a new hope for privacy.
Instead of using Google Search, use DuckDuckGo.com. They don’t track you at all and give you a choice in whether or not to show ads.
Don’t use Gmail, Yahoo Mail, AOL Mail, or Outlook. All these companies either read your emails or work with government entities and let them read it. Gmail lets third party mail apps read your emails as well.
Instead, use iCloud.com, Protonmail.com or TorGuard.com. You can use Gmail but never use third party apps or websites as they are allowed to read your emails. Make a spam email that doesn’t have any personally identifiable aspects to it such as [email protected] to use when signing up for services or websites. Emails are easily collected and sold to marketers and scammers.
Use AdBlockPlus.com to stop cookies from tracking you even after leaving websites as well as block ads that follow you. Many alternatives exist and also work but read their privacy policy as some ironically track everywhere you go.
Download Firefox.com on Android/PC or use Safari by Apple if you use a Mac or iPhone. Stay clear from Chrome, Microsoft Edge, and Yahoo Browser (On Mobile), as these companies all mainly focus on advertising and track all activities.
Use an iPhone. Android is owned by Google and is one of their key tools for mining data so if you can, buy and iPhone. If you really want to stay on Android, disable all Google apps and be very careful when apps ask for permission to use things such as contacts lists, location, cameras, etc.
Use trusted password makers/managers like 1Password.com or Remembear.com to generate complex, unique passwords and store them.
Clear your browser of cookies as much as possible and block them if you can.
The purpose of this article isn’t meant for you to live in fear with a tinfoil hat on your head but to remind you: Nobody cares about your privacy but you. Take measures into your own hands and be responsible, don’t empower Facebook or Google to control us.
Stay safe.
//Sorry that this was probably hard to read, I had a lot to say and didn't want to make it very long. If it seems that I gave Facebook the spotlight of hate, its because I did. Of the two they are the only ones actually selling data.//
Constructive criticism is welcome by the way!