We may be highly reliant on Google for everything from tips to advice, to the latest news and to entertainment of all sorts. Most of us cannot comprehend how life was before Google made us so abjectly dependent upon it. But some of us also have an inkling about the dark side of Google. And then there is Facebook – something else we cannot seem to live without: Facebook knows everything about you, results in crimes and tracks all sorts of personal information. Our ubiquitous phones and other gadgets are literally listening to and watching everything! A new study confirms this:
A recent report found that about 76% of websites now have hidden Google trackers in them. About 24% websites have hidden Facebook trackers and about 12% have Twitter trackers. According to the Princeton Web Transparency & Accountability Project, these three companies have collected huge amounts of data about all of us: our searchers, interests, purchases, location history, browsing and more.
The information collected by these invisible trackers enables Google and Facebook to show us not just targeted by hyper-targeted ads. They do it very accurately and much better than the competition. As a result, Facebook and Google have cornered 63% of the market on digital advertising; a 73% growth in 2017. The two companies pretty much have a stranglehold on the digital advertising space; an advertising duopoly that no other entity can come close to.
When we give certain permissions to Google and Facebook, we aren’t just signing away our privacy rights for the dubious benefit of easy buying access to the things we want; we are also becoming trapped in our own echo chambers. You see what Google and Facebook want you to see; based on what they think you are most likely to click on. This is resulting in increased social polarization; an unintended but highly negative result of the way their algorithms work.
We use this feature when we want a traffic update, ask a food app for a restaurant recommendation, send your location to friends etc. it’s called location history and its collecting information about you all the time. It is enabled by default on our phones. Your phone is also collecting information about you when you're offline and then sends all the collected information to Google when you go online.
So basically we're being stalked pretty much all the time. This also means that the government and courts could ask for your detailed data – and get it! The implications of this go beyond irritating advertisement and the creation of echo chambers.
According to some reports, Google is in the process of creating smart home tech to snoop on and discipline kids when their parents are not at home. This rather creepy system may use cameras, mics, thermal imaging and motion sensors for surveillance and even discipline kids!
Google saves all our searches and voice searches as well as our physical movements. There is also some evidence to show that at least some information from incognito tabs finds its way to Google. So you could regularly clear your history, and remove cookies and so on. Be very careful about the kind of permissions you give various apps when you download and install them. Maybe read information about Google Privacy sometime… in theory, you can manage your privacy, but in fact, there is a reason to be very, very careful (did I mention that?).
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