The Free Trap
The Free Trap
Big Data and Big Tech use “free” services and apps to harvest your personal information.
Welcome to another issue of Secrets of Privacy where we discuss personal privacy related topics and provide practical tips to enhance your personal privacy.
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There’s a common saying that if you’re not paying for something on the internet, then you’re the product. While this saying is not new to the digital era, it’s gained more relevance in recent times because of Big Data and Big Tech data harvesters like Google, Facebook, Twitter, Apple, etc.
Big Tech and Big Data have flooded the internet with free products and service that aren’t really free. They’re traps to lure you in to harvest your data for profit - effectively replicating the Venus Fly Trap model. Sometimes the products and services are useful enough to justify the tradeoff. More often than not, they’re sophisticated traps engineered to exploit human nature.
A few weeks back we introduced you to a solution – the Privacy First Mindset. Once developed, you become inherently skeptical of free products and services and try to avoid them at all costs. Sometimes that’s not possible, but you at least make sure the benefit is worth the tradeoff of giving up valuable personal information. You may even take some basic precautions to minimize risk to your privacy.
Countermeasures
To help you combat and escape these data harvesting traps, there are some countermeasures you can take starting today, including:
Use a VPN on Your Mobile Phone and Desktop. For our US readers, you know that your ISP (internet service provider) can harvest your web search history and sell it to marketers, right? (source) This means your home internet provider or your mobile phone carrier are constantly spying on you and selling your data. Worst of all, you’re paying for the underlying ISP service! Running a VPN protects your browsing history from your ISP and snooping websites, minimizing their ability to profit off of your data.
Block Trackers and Ads. Blocking trackers via web browser settings is a no brainer and fairly standard for most users now. Except in rare circumstances, those only benefit Big Tech. Blocking ads is generally a good practice, but use it strategically. Some of your favorite sites may rely on advertising to survive. If you do block ads on their sites, consider sending them a donation or setting up a subscription to offset the lost ad revenue.
Avoid Social Logins on Third Party Sites. Using your Google or Facebook account to login to a third party site is a convenience difficult to pass up. One less login to remember! The problem is those sites then start sharing data once you authorize that integration. In the case of Google and Facebook, they now have more information to complete their consumer profile on you. Instead, use a personal email addresses to create the login. Or even better, use a disposable email addresses as described below.
Minimize Usage of Mobile Apps. Think of apps as giving companies a home field advantage. It’s much harder to control your data and protect your privacy if you’re using an app designed by Big Tech. Better to use a properly configured browser, even on your mobile device. More on this in a standalone post in the near future.
Use Disposable Email Addresses. Big Data and Big Tech use unique identifiers to build your consumer profile. Phone Numbers and email addresses are key pieces of data. If you use multiple email addresses, it’s harder for Big Data to build a profile on you. And if there’s a data breach, you can simply shut off the impacted email address. More on this in a standalone post in the near future.
Conclusion
Taking steps to minimize data harvesting by Big Tech is an important pro-privacy move for any savvy internet user. To begin, you must learn to discard the habit of falling for “free” traps and create new, more powerful privacy focused habits. After developing a Privacy First Mindset, this will become second nature.
The countermeasures noted above are great small steps. But how do you break the pull of the larger free scheme pushed by Big Tech and Big Data? We’ll explain that in another newsletter article: Breaking the Free Habit.