Understanding Data Collection and Protection in the Digital Age
Data has become highly valuable and profitable for companies, often described as 'the new oil,' with a notable power imbalance existing between users and firms.
Sam Jones, founder of Gener8, explains that data collection occurs primarily through cookies and background trackers. Accepting cookies can enable hundreds of third-party trackers hidden within terms and conditions.
Other methods include pixels, device fingerprinting, and mobile apps that transmit data to third parties. Data brokers aggregate information to sell to advertisers, insurers, or political groups.
The data collected encompasses both personal data—such as name, email, phone number, and location—and behavioral data, including site visits, searches, clicks, and time spent on sites. This information can be utilized to predict users' interests and life events.
Advertising serves as the main motivation for collecting data, aiding in targeting products, conducting research, and fulfilling some legal requirements.
To protect personal information, individuals are advised to perform a personal digital audit, delete data where possible, and submit deletion requests via privacy policies or rights tools like Google's 'Results About You.' Additional steps include deleting forgotten accounts, tightening app permissions, and using privacy settings and VPNs.
While paid services are available to scrub data from the web, individuals can undertake do-it-yourself data cleanup. Experts stress the importance of ongoing data hygiene and awareness of data rights.
