What if you were a woman who had a miscarriage and the trackers got ahold of that information from your search and browsing habits on planned parenthood (which has a LOT of third party trackers and cookies)? Would you like to see ads of what could have been your baby for eternity?

This information could be sold to insurance providers and your premiums could go up since you’re more of a “health risk”.

There are endless avenues where your data could end up and affect your life in the real world.

You are thinking way too small about what can be done with that amount of data on you. I’ll give you an example. I once did some programming work for a website. The website got ‘hacked’ (An administrative admin had their password guessed because they weren’t using good password habits). This website had poor security and with the admins password the ‘hacker’ was able to get a DB dump. Bad stuff. So me and another guy set out trying to identify who had done it. Via server logs we were pretty sure we had correctly tied the ‘hacker’ to a user of the site. By looking at their activity on the site, and what referral links they had followed to get to the site previous, we learned where they approximately lived and their first name. But we knew we needed more info than that, so we looked at his hobbies and figured out he liked pokemon quite a lot. We then created a ‘what pokemon are you’ quiz, asking mostly unimportant questions, but throwing in a couple we needed in order to be able to report him to his local authorities (IE their last name and some other info I can’t remember off the top of my head). We then had this quiz get posted by an account not associated with the running of the site. the ‘hacker’ filled it out, and we reported him for breaking the law with our evidence to his local authorities.

So to reiterate, 2 idiots with no background in data science and like 16 hour between us, were able to manipulate an arbitrary guy into doing what we wanted because of a relatively small amount of data. Now Imagine what people dedicating their lives to this stuff can do to you.

For me it’s the fact that this entire industry runs on information gathered about me. I don’t like to be their currency and so try to hide from them.

Why do people close the toilet door ?

You’d tell them because the law might not consider your activities illegal at this time. But what about trans kids? What about people who have abortions? Unfortunately, we can’t trust any state or legal system to continue to have our best interests in mind.

Better that we normalize a free and private internet now while we still have the privilege of saying “I’d tell them…” And if you’d tell them, then great! But that should be your choice, your agency. It shouldn’t be data that we expect to have collated about us just by visiting a site online.

Online privacy is not something that anyone should take lightly. It is a matter of protecting personal data and one’s human rights. Personal data can include anything that identifies you or reveals something about you (e.g. your health records, browsing history, etc.). This data can be - and is - collected, stored, analyzed, and often sold by third parties without your consent or knowledge. This in turn can lead to serious consequences for you.

To name just two examples. Advertisers can use your personal data to target you with ads that manipulate your behavior or preferences. Governments can use your personal data to monitor your activities or censor your opinions. The very fact that you post this question under an alias and not your real name makes the point that you value your online privacy.

In line with that, online privacy allows you to express yourself freely and access information without censorship or surveillance. Online privacy is a human right that we should respect and defend. It is essential for social justice and human dignity. Without online privacy, we cannot enjoy the benefits of the internet as a platform for open communication, education and sometimes innovation. We cannot participate freely in online communities, share our ideas, learn new things, or explore new possibilities. We cannot challenge the status quo, expose corruption, or demand accountability. Many might not be able to be themselves, without fear or shame.

In my opinion, we should use encryption tools, trustworthy VPNs, secure browsers, and other methods to safeguard our personal data from prying eyes. We should also support and listen to organizations that advocate for privacy rights and fight against online privacy violations.

It matters, because it is our right and - frankly - our responsibility.

Forgive the rant… this topic is important to me.

TL;DR Online privacy is important, because it protects our personal data and our human rights from misuse by third parties. It also enables us to express ourselves and access information freely on the internet.

Edit: added last sentence of second paragraph

Edit 2: fixed some grammar

The VPN thing really depends on which VPN you are getting. A lot of them prey people’s misconceptions like being able to access Netflix content from different regions or being an all in one solution for privacy. A VPN can come in handy if you are connecting to restricted or monitored networks. If you are at work and don’t want your boss knowing you spend a quarter of your day watching Twitch streams for example.

My big concern and why I’m so privacy focused is because of what people could do with my data and not having any control over it. There were some third party websites for Reddit where you could enter a username and it would spit out metrics based off of what you’ve said. One thing it could do was tell you where someone lived. I know someone could go through all my comments and posts manually for any times I slipped up but the ease and automation of it are things I didn’t care for. I want to add an extra hurdle.

Data leaks are another big concern because then your information is just out there without even a facade of privacy for anyone to utilize

The problem extends across a few metrics.

First, probably the most tangible. The police can and do use data purchased from civilian companies to bypass regulations. For example, you don’t need a warrant to check phone contacts if you can buy it. You might be saying you don’t do anything illegal to worry about. Have you ever been to a protest? Have your friends? If climate change bothers you, could you see yourself going to one?

Protests are frequently targeted by law enforcement. Even if you think that would only happen if the protest becomes a riot, you don’t control the crowd. If you’re there but not rioting, your phone location can be used as proof of participation. There is precedent, too. They used location data to arrest capitol rioters. IMO those were good arrests, but how many BLM protestors were arrested based on phone data?

Second, consent. Even if I change nothing else in your mind here, consider that we might simply value our personal data differently. I should have a right to be part of the conversation about me. Let me pay $20 to use a product without observation. Products should be up front about what is collected too (GDPR has helped lots with website tracking). Facebook is known to collect “shadow profiles”, where data is compiled on you even if you aren’t on the platform. I should be allowed to say no to that, for any reason, simply by virtue of it being my information.

Third and fourth go together some. Safety and equity. People are still killed for being gay. Legally. And the collection of data on people enables that. Just buy data off of Pornhub to identify who is browsing their gay section. And if someone is found in a country where it is illegal to be queer, all you need is a list of their contacts to find more. Maybe Apple refuses to unlock their phone for you, but that’s okay. Just buy their contacts off Meta.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/LGBT_rights_by_country_or_territory

But that’s the straightforward issue of equity. Consider someone who has gone to jail. They’ve done their time, they’ve reformed, and now they want to rejoin society. The judge even goes so far as to expunge their records. Well, a background checking company can buy that info still. And that’s just talking about criminal acts that should be reformed. Maybe you don’t care about that. What about crimes that just target BIPOC? In the US, weed is legalizing, slowly. People were still arrested for it, and that history is indelible, regardless of the official record. If even the US Justice System wants to wipe the slate, than the slate should be wiped.

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Race_in_the_United_States_criminal_justice_system

Special mention to Google btw. Good and bad. They do a lot to tell you what and how they collect data, and how they anonymize it. Purportedly don’t sell your data, since they also own the ad network. Like you say, I’m not really worried about the ads, and a lot of their products really are good enough that I don’t mind making that trade. However, I do take umbrage with the idea that it’s fine still. A company does have analytics on their ad campaigns. John Oliver did a funny bit where they put an ad targeted towards Congress. He got a couple of hits too, with their location and had the power to fingerprint their browsers if he wanted. Once you click an ad, you’re in the care of whatever site put that ad out. That means they collect whatever they want on you. Additionally, theyll know what ad brought you in. So if you put an ad out targeting “pregnant people in Texas looking to make a trip”, you’ll have a list of people that Google thinks match.

This whole post misses a lot of nuance and context. It’s a social media post, ultimately. I’m not sure I have enough mental capacity right now to hunt down more links, and I’m about to start my work day. I don’t have any trouble with folks who don’t care – frankly I’m jealous. I’m annoyed that I can’t just use products like most people and not care. It’s just everywhere. Walking down the street I’m on someone’s TikTok, meaning Facebook, YT, Bytedance could get my location without me even interacting with them (shadow profiles from earlier). When I got a covid test recently, I had to download their stupid app to fill out a form. That app has the power to collect endless data points about my phone. Buying concert tickets means signing over my information to your favorite ticket vendor. It’s just endless and exhausting for me.

What if some do not want to share this type of information without giving it a second thought?

Selling bad products to customers is about finding just the right amount of inconvenience for the customer. You never know what information about you can be used by an AI model to pinpoint your threshold. I would like not to be used in a borderline consumer herding.

If someone curiously inquired me on this type of information I’d tell them without giving a second thought.

This is the difference between you and people who care about their privacy, then. I would happily talk about that to someone I trusted, but not a random person on the street, and certainly not someone whose interests I know don’t align with mine, which is mostly true of every company on Earth. Not to mention that any of these companies could be subpoenaed for this information at any time, which would be an issue if the law changed to make something I do illegal.

Coworker of mine recently told me that his family’s been getting harassed for hush money by some fucker who got his son’s personal information after he visited a compromised website.

That’s why.

If all you’re thinking about are advertisers, as if they’re the only ones who can hop on board the online monitoring train, you are missing a huuuuuuge cybersecurity threat.

ETA for anyone who’s curious: yes he went to the FBI, don’t know if anything’s come of it yet

Your data can and will be used against you, by people who want to exploit you. Owning your data is protecting your assets.

I’m not too vocal when it comes to privacy but I will tell you that I really don’t like how algorithms take data and use them in order to manipulate the masses. It just seems very controlling, like you’re being controlled by a clairvoyant puppetmaster.

I mean the “P” in VPN stands for “private”. One would hope that carries some actual meaning.

If you’re so willing to give up your privacy then that’s your call. Some of us cherish our privacy and our freedom and don’t want corporations or the government being able to easily know anything about us without our explicit consent, if at all possible.