In today’s world, data is the most essential, critical thing and is worth millions. All these big tech giants play high time on it. Companies like Facebook, Google go to any length to get this data. The significant deals are around the same. Without this data, online advertising falls flat. These internet giants hold the most vital part of the worldwide web and track your every move from the very moment you sign up with them.
Once you sign up, you provide them with your personal information like name, residence, pictures, likes, interests etc. People trade through this data and use it for promoting their businesses.
If today, you receive a call from an unknown number, you cannot be surprised- the reason being that we give our number at so many sites, it is easy to get to others.
It is because of this unwanted flow of data that your phone is full of advertising messages, you get promotional calls, and all of this takes away your peace of mind.
Therefore, it is essential to get your privacy back. Let us see how these big companies get our data, and how can we prevent them from doing so.
1. In-Store or public WiFi activity
Information sent via public or publicly exposed WiFi networks is vulnerable to hackers who eavesdrop and collect all your personal information. If you are available on any public network, you are making things difficult for yourself.
To protect from this, use a VPN to encrypt your internet connection and transfer confidential data and private information without risking your privacy.
2. Meta-data from social media activity
When you upload a picture on social media, you also upload metadata related to it. It may include the location along with some other personal data like your name and mail-id. For protecting this data, the best way isn’t tot stop uploading pictures.
Instead, one should change the privacy settings of the account. Moreover, if you are tagging a location, experts recommend sharing it only when the account is not public since the information can put to use abruptly.
3. Facial recognition systems
It has become a more convenient method to get personal data quickly. With the advent of AI, it is indeed the next big thing. However, there is a risk of this data misused in a lot of ways. One most prominent reason is the imperfection in the field.
If the recognition is not done with perfection, anyone else can access your data without your knowledge. The best way to keep a check on this is by not allowing every other site/app to access this. Stick to old “unlock with passwords” till the AI masters it!
Therefore, we can see that there are multiple ways through which the big companies access our data and hinder our privacy. However, we have the right to limit this sharing of data. The above solutions will help you for sure.
We will keep coming up with such ideas, till then, stay protected and beware of how much you share. Like this, the Internet will become an even happier place.