The Website That Knows Everything About You
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A decade ago, people would surf the web without fearfulness that they would be spied on. Things have changed.
In 2019, the online world is full of vast, powerful data drove systems that are designed to collect as much data as possible on you. These websites collect a huge amount of information, including your operating system, location, IP accost, your interests, gender, and plenty of other stuff.
The reason they exercise this is simple enough. Your data is big business, and companies get rich from selling information technology. Only it also involves a huge alienation of your privacy rights. Yous should take your own privacy seriously considering no-one else is going to.
These are the 13 creepy websites that you should be enlightened of:
1. Google
It is probably not a surprise that Google is at the top of this list. That's partly because Google is used by so many people for and so many dissimilar things – from electronic mail to maps to searches. Just information technology's also because if you do anything on your computer or phone when you are signed in to your Google account (which is probably all the time), Google will keep runway of information technology.
Personal Info
You tin can bank check what pieces of personal information Google has collected on you by going to the Google Personal Information page . There, you can see all of the information you lot accept given to Google. They volition accept your phone number if you lot've prepare your phone as one of your business relationship recovery options.
It'southward possible to enter false information in these fields, of course, and go along yourself anonymous by using a pseudonym and a fake gender. Only if you lot get blocked from your business relationship, that could get in difficult to go dorsum in.
Ad Preferences
Google collects such a huge amount of data on you for one reason: it helps to target ads your way. Google builds a profile on every user that includes ads they might exist interested in. This contour is based on age, gender, location, and other factors.
You lot can meet your profile by going to Manage Advert Settings . There, you will see a list of ads that Google thinks you will like. Here, you lot can remove some of your interests, or (better) turn off Ad Personalization completely.
Location History
Now we're getting to the creepy stuff. Google tracks your every motion. If you lot take a Google account on your phone (and you probably practice) information technology automatically generates maps of everywhere you have been. For years. Don't believe me? Become to the Google Location History page , and y'all will.
You can turn off location tracking in Activeness Controls > Location , merely that'southward not quite the end of the story. In the location history folio, you will see a listing of all the reservations you lot accept made. How does Google know that?
It knows because information technology reads your emails. And in that location is no way of turning off that 'characteristic'.
Browsing and Voice Activeness
Google also tracks the websites yous visit, how long you spend on them, and what yous do when you are there. This is some of the creepiest data the tech giant collects considering your activity tells them an awful lot about who you lot are.
You can see what information Google has on your internet action by going to the Google My Activity page . There, y'all volition run across every site you've visited. You can delete individual sites by clicking on the 'delete activeness' push, but this is a labor-intensive way of keeping your activities private.
If yous e'er use voice search, Google will as well store recordings of your phonation. Go to Voice & Sound Activity and you will see a list of recordings. You can fifty-fifty play them dorsum, which is super creepy. Over again, you tin delete individual searches on this folio, just at that place are much easier ways to protect your privacy (which I'll come onto in a few minutes).
Device and Operating System
Alongside all the personal information above, Google also keeps track of which devices you are using (whether you lot are using Google or not), and the OS you are using. It will also store your IP address, which gives Google a lot of extra information virtually your location and Internet access provider.
2. Facebook
Facebook uses a slightly unlike approach to Google when information technology comes to collecting information on you. Instead of using hidden trackers, Facebook only asks you to voluntarily tell them everything nearly yourself.
This process starts when you sign up for an account when you are asked to share your proper noun, gender, e-mail address, telephone number, and date of nascence. Information technology continues by the site prompting you to enter information on where you work, which schools you went to, where you live, and so on advertising infinitum .
Facebook also uses some creepy tactics to become extra information. The site volition track every advert that you click and every friend yous accept ever made (even after you delete them). It will besides collect and store your IP and location.
That's already a scary amount of data, simply there is more. More than than half the sites on the internet also include a Facebook script that extends their surveillance activities outside the Facebook site itself. If y'all are signed into Facebook, this will let the visitor know what you are doing, no matter where you lot are.
"Facebook has been collecting audio from some phonation chats on Messenger and paying contractors to listen to and transcribe it.."
Fourth dimension escape from this spy company into more denentralized space, run by community. No KYC, no wires and tracking.. Are yous set?#facebook $zbux film.twitter.com/HqC6AUgmfF
— Pan Tomuu (@PanTomuu) Baronial fourteen, 2019
Facebook uses all this information to brand money. They utilize the profile they have congenital-upward on you to let advertisers target their ads. They even allow third-political party apps direct access to the data they've collected on you via an API.
Protecting yourself from Facebook's data collection is catchy. You can turn off admission from third-party apps from inside your profile on the site (Apps > Edit > API access). Y'all tin block them from tracking you by turning this off on your smartphone.
It'due south also worth signing out of Facebook whenever y'all are not using the site, in guild to defeat the tracking that the visitor uses on third-party sites.
three. YouTube
YouTube is owned past Google, and it uses the same data collection strategies and techniques as those its parent company employs. That's why YouTube will continually hassle you to sign in to your Google account when you try and watch videos on the site.
YouTube will import all of the information that Google holds on y'all, including your historic period, name, gender, and annihilation else you've volunteered when you signed upwards for a Google account. It will and then correlate this with every video you lot watch on YouTube, and every advertizing you click on the site.
The simply manner to finish this is to limit the information that Google collects on you. Check out the steps above for ways to do that. You can also use YouTube after signing out of your Google account, which will (slightly) limit the information that it is able to collect.
YouTube also allows you to delete videos from your browsing history, in the same way every bit Google. Supposedly, deleting action in this way means that it is gone forever, though we are not so certain nigh that.
iv. Truthful People Search
Truthful People Search tin exist a useful tool. It allows anyone to access some pretty personal pieces of data on anyone else. It tin be used to discover someone you lot have long lost contact with or to search for the contact details of professional colleagues.
In lodge to be effective, though, Truthful People Search collects a huge amount of information from all over the spider web. It correlates names with phone numbers, for instance, and and so potentially allows anyone to discover out your contact information.
It's worth checking the site to see how much information they have collected on you. Y'all might be surprised to discover that they know your name, gender, and fifty-fifty your phone number. This data is collected from a diverseness of sources: they pay for information from Google and Facebook only also use more creepy tools.
Plenty of apps, for instance, will sell information to True People Search, and so you should check usage agreements for the apps y'all download to go on your data from being made public.
Protecting yourself from True People Search is quite a hassle. If you find out that they take data on you, you can go to https://world wide web.truepeoplesearch.com/removal , and they will delete it. However, the procedure can be quite irksome, and you have no guarantee that this information is non still being stored somewhere.
v. Family unit tree Now
Like True People Search, Family Tree Now claims to exist offering a useful service. It might, indeed, be useful for some people, merely it also collects a creepy amount of data on everyone.
The site collects information from authorities records, including birth and death certificates. Interested users can and so search this database, in order to research their family unit history and (potentially) contact long-lost relatives. That's fine, but the site can besides be used to search for people's contact details in society to blackmail them.
The site has rapidly go very popular, largely because it doesn't crave users to pay to go admission to data. That's too scary, though, considering it potentially gives anyone access to information on you.
It'south worth checking how much information Family Tree Now already has on you. You can then protect yourself from the site by requesting an opt-out from FamilyTreeNow.com . These requests can accept up to 48 hours to process.
6. Webkay
Webkay is certainly a creepy website, merely information technology is slightly different from those in a higher place. This site was built as a tool to help users run into how much information they reveal just by using the web. Go to Webkay.robinlinus.com, and you'll meet a list of all the information that tin be extracted from your automobile.
This includes some pretty worrying details. The site will tell you your location, your IP, and details nigh your operating system. Information technology also knows which browser you are using, and any plugins y'all have installed. It will also scan to encounter if you are logged into any social media sites, which will themselves runway y'all around the spider web.
Using a tool similar this is a must for anyone who takes their privacy seriously. Yous tin apply Webkay to rail how good your cyber-defenses are, and to encounter the outcome of any new security software y'all install.
Whilst protecting yourself confronting Webkay is not necessary, the site does point to the importance of using privacy tools like VPNs, and of using search engines that don't share your action with outside parties.
7. Predictive World
Predictive Globe is another site that lets you check on how much data you are revealing to the globe. Information technology uses your Facebook profile to show you just how much data Facebook has collected on you.
When you go to the site, you lot'll be prompted to give it access to your Facebook profile. Once yous've done that, it will give y'all a listing of all the information it can notice. You might be slightly freaked out past that.
But it gets worse. What is so creepy about Predictive World is that the site volition employ this information to make predictions most what volition happen to you – and the decisions yous will brand – in the futurity. These predictions tin be eerily accurate, just information technology's squeamish to accept a tool that reveals the assumptions that Facebook also makes about yous.
Protecting yourself from Predictive World is not strictly required since the site is more of a privacy tool than a surveillance system. Using the site, though, shows y'all just how important it is to lock down the information that Facebook has on you. Y'all can do that via the steps to a higher place, only you should also make sure that you don't stay signed into Facebook all the fourth dimension.
8. Truthfinder
Truthfinder might, I suppose, be a useful tool for some people. PIs trying to rails someone down, or hackers looking for people to attack, will find it a useful resource. For the rest of the states, this site is merely dangerous.
Truthfinder uses algorithms to search publicly-available records on almost everyone. Visit the site, and yous'll exist able to enter a name, state, and any other information you accept on someone. Try it with yourself, and y'all'll run into just how much info is out there for anyone willing to expect for it.
Considering Truthfinder uses information from public databases, information technology is difficult to limit the amount of information the site has on you. Documents like nascence and death records, for instance, are nerveless by law, and you cannot opt-out of these governmental systems.
At that place is, though, a way to protect yourself from Truthfinder. The site will allow you to opt-out of their arrangement, and this will hide your information from hackers and other criminals.
ix. 23andme.com
23andme is an example of a service that has become very pop in recent years: the company analyses your Deoxyribonucleic acid in order to help you empathize your ancestry, and appraise your risk of genetic diseases.
A visitor having access to this information is really creepy, and 23andme seems aware of this. They make a big deal about respecting your privacy on their site. The problem is that these claims are undermined by the fact that the company has been caught sharing genetic data with GlaxoSmithKline (GSK).
This revelation has made people very skeptical nearly the other info that 23andme has nerveless. Even without sharing your genetic data, it is possible to use the site to notice information about your ancestors, or potentially anyone else.
And whilst 23andme have said that they exercise non share this data with exterior parties, the recent news stories suggest otherwise.
Protecting yourself from 23andme is easy enough, though. But don't use their site, and you should be safe.
x. Target
In some ways, the information that Target collects on its online customers are not that different from other retailers. Similar Amazon, Google, and Facebook, the Target site will collect and shop information on your personal details and shopping habits.
What makes Target different, and as well creepy, is the way that it uses this information. It is far more aggressive than other retailers when it comes to using this data to target ads to its customers.
Ane example of this is the contempo scandal over Target's 'pregnancy scores'. It turns out that the site was using the data is collected in lodge to assign customers a 'pregnancy score': in other words, the probability of them existence pregnant. In one case this 'score' reached a certain threshold, the customer was bombarded with products for new mothers.
Using these kinds of ambitious sales techniques at such a sensitive time was bound to lead to controversy, and it did. In one case, a teenage girl was targeted with pregnancy ads. Her dad complained, only to notice out that she was indeed pregnant, and had been hiding this from her family.
If the idea of Target knowing more about your family than you practice creeps you lot out, you're not lone.
Protecting yourself from sites similar Target tin can be difficult because y'all need to prepare an account in order to utilise the site. You should, though, be careful about how much information y'all upload onto this blazon of site. You should also never, e'er link these accounts to your Facebook or Google profile considering this will give the retailer admission to all the information that these tech giants have nerveless on you.
11. DataSelfie
DataSelfie is similar to some of the tools I've mentioned above: it aims to give you a better agreement of just how much information you are revealing without realizing it.
DataSelfie has since been shut down, but it was groundbreaking when it came to raising awareness nigh information privacy and security. It operated as a plugin for Chrome rather than a website but could excerpt a huge amount of data from the most basic facts about yous.
The plugin essentially copied Facebook, using the same kind of tracking technology to follow y'all around the web and show you what it revealed about your habits. Though the plugin is no longer available, the video beneath gives you lot an idea of what the system could exercise.
Data Selfie – Browser extension from Information 10 on Vimeo.
12. clickclickclick.click
Clickclickclick is a creepy, amazing, funny, and important site. Similar some of the data privacy tools above, this site aims to bring habitation to users just how much data they are sending to site owners every time they employ the internet.
Clickclickclick does this in a way that is really creepy, and really effective. All of your activeness – and anything else the site might be able to discover out – volition roll down the screen. A voice will tell yous what y'all are doing, and if you lot've been lazy about clearing out your cookies the aforementioned voice will requite yous worryingly personal details.
Clickclickclick is the most effective tool nosotros've seen at raising awareness of data privacy. If you're reading this article, you are likely already enlightened of how of import information technology is to keep your data individual, and y'all've probably using a VPN to hide your action from those who want to steal it.
Clickclickclick is, though, a useful tool if you want to convince your friends or your family unit to start taking this stuff seriously. Information technology can actually freak people out the offset fourth dimension they apply the site, and they will never be then casual most their browsing again.
13. HaveIBeenPwned.com
HaveIBeenPwned is another useful tool for protecting your privacy. The site allows yous to check how much data is out at that place on your habits and history and volition alert you know if someone has stolen your identity.
This site will likewise tell you if your personal information has been fabricated public via a data leak, and then you should check it frequently to see if you've been the victim of a hack. With new breaches occurring almost every day, this site is an center-opening look at merely how fragile our electric current information security systems are.
How to Protect Yourself
So there we have it: 13 sites that concord a creepy corporeality of data on you. Subsequently going through the list, yous might exist worried that there is more data out in that location about you than you would similar. You are right to worry: though these sites are the worst offenders, there are also plenty of other sites I could have mentioned.
It's as well worth noting that the sites above are all legal. I oasis't fifty-fifty discussed the faux sites that are out there, and that volition rail you for the purposes of hacking rather than just selling your data through legitimate channels.
And so what can you lot practice to protect yourself?
Well, in that location are a couple of key steps that you can take:
- First of all, follow the steps I've outlined above to limit the corporeality of information that sites (and especially Google) collect on you. This is as elementary equally going into the settings on your business relationship, and turning off tracking or information collection.
- Second, make certain that you lot are signed out of Google and Facebook when you are not using them. This will stop the tracking software they employ from following you to other sites and reporting back on your activity. Information technology might sound like it would be annoying to have to enter your password again every fourth dimension you want to use these sites, but this minor inconvenience is worth it.
- Thirdly, you should use privacy tools. Firefox, for case, comes packaged with tracking protection that can stop some of the sites in a higher place.
- Most chiefly, apply a VPN. A VPN (Virtual Private Network) will hide your data and activity from many commonly used trackers. This will mean that you tin stay anonymous online, which will frustrate attempts to follow you around. Information technology volition besides mean that, fifty-fifty if a hacker manages to intercept your data, they won't be able to read it.
Your Privacy, Your Responsibleness
Equally people become more and more enlightened of just how much data is being collected on them, tech companies have started to stress that they take data privacy seriously. However, it's difficult to credit these statements, because ultimately these companies make near of their coin out of selling user information to advertisers.
In reality, you should never put your trust in tech companies to proceed your data prophylactic. They will hide their intention to sell this data deep in the small print, and even if they don't intend to release this information information technology could be leaked via a data alienation.
This means that the best advice is to take your ain privacy seriously considering no-one else is going to. Past making sure you limit the corporeality of information that is collected on you, you lot tin can maintain your right to privacy.
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