General Categories > Coffee & Nib-bles
To anyone who uses the internet...
Starlee:
We've known for a while that search engines monitor our searches. This smacked me over the head when proteinase inhibitor advertisements started to pop up in the adds of my calligraphy searches. Talk about mixing fields! Or the time I was at a department store and nearly bought a bowl with my dishes (just after the wedding), but had second thoughts, only to return home and find that same Department store's bowl in the advertisements on webpages later that evening. :S
So when my husband (a tech/internet saavy guy) brought this article to my attention, I knew to give it serious thought. And with reason. This concept about Social Cooling is chilling. If you care about personal security, please read.
https://www.socialcooling.com/
Wasn't there a movie about this? :S
bleair:
For managing some of the information that google accumulates about you -
https://support.google.com/accounts/answer/465?co=GENIE.Platform%3DDesktop&hl=en
Your cellphone usage and how you move through the city during the day and unless you use a VPN they also record what websites you visit as you move. A few US carriers allow you to pay to opt out of this tracking, but the last time I checked there was only one.
Your usage of "social media" websites, e.g. facebook is by far the most dangerous. Facebook has a vested interest in selecting stories to show you that are going to elicit a click or response and for-certain they track both what news websites you go to and what shopping websites you have visited, they know which way you lean politically, your approx. age, and your income demographic... It also now seems that law enforcement (in the US) can legally demand access to your facebook account (e.g. returning from overseas trips).. Did you like a post criticizing a current or former policy of the government? Do you have friends who might have made such posts? Then US Border control can, and is expected, to go to great lengths to "protect the US border". I'm not saying give up on facebook altogether, but use it selectively (e.g. using it to coordinate meetups with friends is a great low risk option).
What can you do if this bothers you?
#1 Let your representatives know you do _NOT_ want ISPs to be allowed to track your itnernet usage, and you do not want to allow them to resell this history (this sadly was a new change that just recently passed into law)
#2 When web browsing, if you choose to open a new "private" or "incognito" it's a bit harder for sites to track your shopping interests as you move to other sites (though, if you're using amazon they obviously know who you are if you login!). If you're especially worried you might have a different web browser (e.g. Firefox, instead of Chrome) that you exclusively use for a subsets of sites (e.g. only visit your banking website with Firefox - make sure whichever web browser you use you regularly check it for updates)
#3 Any website you use (unless you're paying for the service AND they've disclosed their tracking policy) is almost certainly directly or indirectly tracking you... this isn't always a horrible thing - websites need to pay costs (servers, bandwidth, salaries for their writers to create the content you view/read.) This content is paid for by selling ads... The point is, be aware that everything you do online is likely a means for someone else to sell ads to you.
#4 Don't freak out, but do be aware that this is tracking is happening.
Estefa:
There were some long articles in the New York Times in the last months regarding keeping your devices and mobile digital live secure. For example, logging out of all social media accounts and sending randomly created passwords to a trusted person at home (before logging out of course), so you can say with truth that you don't have acces to your accounts right now ;). Or leaving your regular labtop and mobile at home and travel without. There was a lot more, and some of that very complicated … it's for sure something to worry about.
I must admit that I am on the other hand sometimes astonished at how much private stuff people are willingly letting the whole world know – especially when it comes to personal pics of family or friends.
Erica McPhee:
I was really surprised when I posted about this on my FB a couple of years ago and ... no one seemed to care! ;D This happens to me all the time - I see whatever we are talking about at dinner in my Instagram feed advertisements. It's really irritating. I stopped going on FB so much because whatever I talked about or ordered or looked at on Amazon was plastered all over the place.
I stopped using Google but it seems like it doesn't matter if I am still on the internet.
Thank you for sharing this article. ;)
Estefa:
--- Quote from: Erica McPhee on June 19, 2017, 11:06:16 PM ---This happens to me all the time - I see whatever we are talking about at dinner in my Instagram feed advertisements.
--- End quote ---
I don't even get Instagram advertisments interestingly …
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