Please understandnim asking this question from a genuine place. I dont want the quora answer, i want the tech savvy, security expert minds of my fellow lemmings. If thats ok?
What happens to this data? What can/do they do with it? and why are so many people concerned about google tracking them?
Do i as an average user need to be concerned?
If so, What sorts of things can i do to avoid being tracked? Preferably without too much comprimise.
People don’t realize how much data is collected, how it’s analyzed to determine things about you, and how it’s given out to nearly anyone. Here are some concerning examples that hopefully speak for themselves.
Data from fitness app Strava was used to locate secret US military bases in Afghanistan and Iraq by some random guy on Twitter. He did this by pointing out people running in squares in the middle of the desert. Imagine what America’s enemies could do with this information that this company will sell to anyone.
Ad company Xandr allows you to target audiences with labels like “Recently purchased a pregnancy test”, “Has a large gambling debt”, and “Has depression”. Once again, this is freely available for anyone to purchase. These tracking companies find out things that are very personal to you and then sell that info to people who might not have your best interests in mind.
Last but not least. Governments and law enforcement can access this information at any time for any purpose. Do you really want the government and police agencies to have a database of people grouped by their religious and political beliefs or their sexual orientation?
Hopefully you can see why the information being collected and given out to anyone is concerning. As to how to avoid it, I’m not sure there is any way besides government regulation. Maybe someone else has some answers!
I just don’t use the internet, can’t track me if I ain’t on it!
If your friends have Facebook, and they share contacts on their phone, and they communicate with you Facebook has a shadow profile for your phone number. They still track you even without the app or an account.
Joke’s on Facebook, all my friends are either Amish or live in anarcho-syndicalist communes
(Rumspringa can be a problem tho)
Yes, that’s why I have two phone numbers. One with an official work number that I give to friends and business partners - Its basically a requirement to have a public phone number if one runs a company where I live, so no hiding there anyways. And then I have a separate number I never give out, for data only.
Oh, you tried to call me but I didn’t pick up? Sorry, I was busy/tired/generic excuse. But if you get on Element I’ll give you my private account. Think of it as a backstage pass, you’ll get in when nobody else does. You’ll be special.
Kindergarten level psychology that works surprisingly well.
Are they both attached to smartphones? Location data can be pulled essentially equating the two numbers. If both devices always are in the same spot it’s the same person etc
Different tools for different threats. I’m not trying to hide from state-level actors and phone data is illegal to sell where I live.
And if I were, surely I wouldn’t talk about it on an open forum. In such a hypothetical scenario I wouldn’t even bring a cellphone, no matter if it’s a smartphone or a plain ol’ Nokia from the last millennium.
My point is they probably know both are you. I have two phones too, it just depends on what your goal is. If it’s not to be tracked by the Google, Microsoft, and Metas of the world you’re probably failing.
How can Google, Meta and Microsoft corrolate two phones where one is completely devoid of any Google Play blobs if they don’t have access to location and triangulation data from the cell towers?
You’re not even safe from deleting your account.
You delete your account, come back with a new one to find that the suggested people are people you once had as friends or looked at.
Gee, wonder how they know that? /s
The only Facebook I use is a telephone book!
…. They said, on the internet.
Guys I don’t know why, but I feel it’s a lie.
Oh you sweet summer child. You have no idea how much tracking goes on.
I watch a YouTube channel called The Hated One. He explains a lot about how to stay safe on the net. Unfortunately, it doesn’t sound like it’s possible to be completely safe and to be even a little bit safe is a HUGE PITA.
I remember reading something about a guy that went so hard at being anonymous that the FBI almost arrested him since it looked like he was doing something criminal to want all this anonimity.
I couldn’t find the source now
Catch 22, man.
It’s called microtargeting, all big tech companys are sorting people in groups, just by their use of the service. It starts with simple things, for example: cats or dogs? And this goes deeper to your religion or sexuality, politics etc. Created mostly for advertising it got used by political parties. Check the Cambridge analytical scandal. If you easily able to sort the people for your target you are able to manipulate your targeted people.
Newest scandal for microtargeting came from the EU-Commission with the chatcontrol.
Cambridge Analytica stuff though I think mostly revolved around them identifying more vulnerable users.
I don’t consider myself vulnerable to this stuff (I may consider grandparents and certain friends a bit more vulnerable) - should I still be worried about them having my personal data? I obviously would rather they don’t have my vulnerable relatives data so they aren’t manipulated, but for me personally does it matter?
You not considering yourself vulnerable to this stuff makes you exactly the type that is vulnerable to this stuff.
That’s kind of silly really. Consider the example above where the woman gets fired for being pregnant. Now just pretend it was a man thing instead. What if you are diagnosed with a curable cancer, but your employer only sees oncology and fires you. What if they find out you go to a bar that is NEAR a gay bar and they just establish a policy that draws a radius around them? I can go on forever. You don’t have control over what makes you vulnerable.
My worst imagination is labelling you and selling your label to the companies they supply to, and how wrongly those companies can use that data, example: google search “prostate cancer” or searching for symptons associated with prostate cancer - label telling probable prostate cancer developing with this user - insurance companies denying insurance to you or making it too expensive. Now extrapolate this to what your searches probably tell about you or your state, and multiply by the websites you visit, the time you spend reading article/tweet/forum/post about a certain subject, where and how you comment those articles, etc, and being labeled according to their perceived likes/hates/problems about yourself.
This. I remember that one video by LTT where he tried searching for a flight and he got a way higher price on the standard browser compared to the one with no personal accounts/cookies.
If I use search engines, be it to find opinions on a topic or as you said an insurance, I want those sorted by factors like the date it’s been created and maybe the reputability of the source. Not what the algorithm thinks I want to see or I should see in “its” opinion.
That doesn’t happen. These companies don’t sell user data and never have, they make money by being the only ones with your data through targeted advertisements. It’s not in their interest to sell it.
I don’t like the idea that if history repeats itself, a powerful entity can force the data vaults open and see who they should send to the showers. I could be on the “correct” side at that time yet something I did or said last year has the system deem me unfit for the noble breed.
Here’s a good example why you should care
https://gizmodo.com/signal-tried-to-run-the-most-honest-facebook-ad-campaig-1846823457
The US and UK have both used data from period trackers to spy on women and monitor for “suspicious” miscarriages.
An example of this I use on occasion is:
You date someone years ago and no longer are. You’ve moved on, but that person then goes and commits a heinous crime. The police decide that since you dated years ago, and that record of your personal info is stored on some database they have somewhere, they no-knock warrant into your house, and shoot you dead in your own bed (Brianna Taylor - Louisville KY.) because they think there’s a possibility he was there.
Breonna Taylor*
This example is pretty good. I’m stealin’ it.
If so, What sorts of things can i do to avoid being tracked? Preferably without too much comprimise.
Stop using Chrome based browsers. Use Firefox or a Firefox derivative. Use adblockers such as Ublock origin or Adnausem, a plugin that will hide ads from you and click on the ads to mess up your digital footprint. Consent-o-matic is a plugin that will decline any cookies request from sites.
More technical inclined, For your home set your DNS servers to DNS.adguard.com, again blocks ads. Use containers with Firefox, it will limit the cross site tracking when you see a share with Google/Facebook/twitter. Those share butts are particularly nasty.
AdGuard Software Limited was founded in 2009 in Moscow
And 7Zip is also Russian.
deleted by creator
Wait, adnauseum will clock on random ads for me? Does this make it an undetectable adblocker?
no it still gets detected because it is using Ublock Origin to hide the ads.
Personally I feel more easy minded because I know that whatever I do online leaves as little trace as usual. If I go out by myself say for a drive and I get back home I expect no one to ever know that I went away and where unless I decide to say so. Same goes for online activity. I would expect nothing to be tied to me and whatever I do to go unnoticed unless for some reason I agree with sharing such data. It’s often said though that with privacy comes less convenience and that is true: not having app features ready before you even ask or easily paying or doing other things online so I see how wanting convenience over privacy can be preferable. For me though, the point I made in the beginning is stronger and motivates me.
Also on a side note I watched a video from Louis Rossman where he talked about some kind of police radio going stolen and the authorities went ask google for people in that area that searched that specific model online to help track that person down so… yeah, I’m already not a fan of leaving traces I don’t want to leave. Let alone those that might make the authorities mistake me for a criminal.
Personally I’m trying to be as offline and anonimous as possible. I’m moving away from cloud storage and if a service can be used with a client without an account where I can locally save and back up things I like then I’m using that. The biggest challenge right now is youtube as a platform with that huge of a content and a decent algorithm for suggestions is yet to be created.
I’m sure there is a LOT of additional information about “what you can do”, but here are some very simple starting points. You can do these today if you want.
- Only use Firefox with uBlock Origin installed/active for web browsing.
- Use a Virtual Private Network (VPN). https://protonvpn.com is considered one of the best.
- Turn off location services on your phone (this will probably be controversial but I think it makes a lot of sense).
For more, subscribe to @privacy and read and support eff.org
Best wishes!
The biggest concern is that even if you are innocent, your data can and likely will at some point be used against you. This was proven by the Snowden Leaks. There are more than enough of these unfortunate cases, here are some examples:
https://www.nytimes.com/2022/08/21/technology/google-surveillance-toddler-photo.html
I can recommend Privacy Guides, it’s a website created by volunteers to teach people about digital privacy and security. It’s great for beginners.
If you are interested in the topic, join !privacy@lemmy.ml.
From what I understand and not trying to read any of the answers to this.
For the large part of the picture, it’s about marketing. To market specifically to you that is based on where you’ve been, what you’ve bought before and what your interests are. So they know that you don’t want to buy or subscribe into things you’ve no interest in at any capacity. So why not try to goad you into it by using things you’re into because of the data collected that’s filtered from your interests?
That’s probably the only not-so worrisome thing I can think of. It’s just a giant distraction and tool to get you to spend and subscribe.
A lot of people don’t like to be tracked and having data collected because, we feel it isn’t anyone’s business in what we do. So, why should it be the business of Google, Apple, Microsoft, Discord, Reddit, Facebook, Firefox .etc to be concerned in what we do?
Aside from marketing, it’d be a lot easier for all of them to pinpoint exactly what we do to feed data to authorities for easier prosecution. Which depends on how you look at it, I just think that if you don’t want to attract the attention of authorities who’ve been given a tip on you without you knowing, don’t be a criminal.
All in all really and I’m starting to derail my own explanation, it’s a big wiry issue with privacy.
To put it plainly, it’s largely for marketing and we really feel it isn’t the business of corporations to know what we’re doing, if we’re knowingly not breaking any laws. Also now that I’ve thought of it, harvesting so much data increases risk of security breaches that hackers can take. Which means it’s going from bad hands to worse off hands because now hackers can just sell our data around in the black market and we wouldn’t even know it.
All my life I give up all my data to any product of any company I use. I accept all cookies to track me, send auto-reports and telemetry, try to join all beta products and gladly report bugs that occur. I use one nickname everywhere it is available, my home address and phone number and all social network pages are easily googlable, all my profiles are public. I always say what I think. I’m from Kyiv, Ukraine, and I have never had a single negative occasion due to my Internet behavior. AMA.
I think if people knew the extent to which these big-data algorithms can figure out things about you just based on the links you click and posts you upvote then they would be more concerned. If it was just that they knew my location, age and interests then I wouldn’t really care much but the reality is that they probably know stuff about me, that even I don’t.
I simply don’t like the fact that this database exists somewhere because it can come back to bite me one day. Just imagine what a fascistic government could use data like this for. Or maybe not even that, but remember how we first didn’t have chatGPT and no one thought we would for years but then it just appeared and now it’s there. Well what if tomorrow someone comes up with an equally fun tool that you can put any person’s name into and it’ll give you access to all this data. I want my page on that app to be very brief and inconsistent.
I’m perfectly aware that it’s impossible to use the internet and not leave any tracks at all, but I want to make sure that my tracks are incredibly difficult to follow and preferably that they don’t lead anywhere.
Corporations are scummy motherfuckers. Once they have this data they will keep it forever. Even if they don’t have a use for it now they can come up with something in the future and will have no qualms about fucking you over with it. The technology available to analyze it is only getting more powerful as time goes on.
