Privacy breaches and violations of digital rights made endless rounds last year, so are we still going to let it all again happen in 2022?
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Some of the biggest headlines in recent years have been about privacy breaches or touched on issues of privacy breaches. Especially in the online community news, privacy violations became an everyday topic. From Facebook’s multiple privacy infringement acts, especially in the United States, to adopt and the advent of facial recognition technologies that collect users’ personal and intimate information, there is a lot to learn from data breaches.
How Do Data Brokers Access Your Personal Information?
If you’re wondering how “personal” these data brokers get in collecting your information and then selling it afterward to companies who cash in on them, then here’s a little detail:
The data you give to the company that vices you may not be important to you, but for another breed of business, that data is precious.
In addition, even if you try to save yourself from giving too much information to companies, these data brokers collect it from publicly available sources. For instance, your property records, court cases, marriage licenses, medical records, online purchases, and even your browsing history is accessible to these brokers.
While the information collected by these data brokers can be out of date and sometimes incorrect, it is still valuable to marketers, investors, and corporations who run their businesses upon this data.
While such data benefits corporate companies and social networking websites in improving their services, abusers and stalkers also cherish this data provided by data brokers as well.
Ways to Save Your Data from Stalkers, Abusers, and, Third Parties
It is extremely time-consuming and complicated to stop data brokers from collecting your personal information and almost impossible for firms to remove it from their databases.
While some states like California and Vermont put a restriction on the regulation of data brokers, the regulation remains unaffected globally.
Therefore, here is what you can do to protect your privacy and data from abusers:
Carefully Read Social Sites’ Terms and Conditions
Do not just blindly click to “Accept and Continue.”
Personal information is the new form of valuable currency these days. By blindly agreeing to terms and conditions provided by social networking sites upon joining you submit yourself to a potential data breach.
Therefore, it is important to take out some time to wade through the Privacy Policy and Terms and conditions before clicking the “accept and continue” option.
If you read carefully, you’ll probably find most of the options in the interest of the company which may be unfavorable for your internet privacy. For instance, some of the free sites ask permission to gather and sell your data to third parties for marketing purposes.
Stay Mindful Every Time You Install a New App
Every time you install a new app, you will find the app asking for permission to access certain data on your phone. The data includes contact numbers, photos, camera, audio, and phone dialer, which you end up permitting without thinking of the consequences.
What you do not understand is that a single rogue app with permission to access your personal and sensitive information punches a big hole in your privacy protection.
An example of this is the Meitu application. Meitu, the viral sensation that lets users give users a Japanese-inspired makeover goes beyond contacts and photos while asking for permission to access the phone data of users. The application asks for your location and number to automatically run itself as a startup.
Keep Your Devices Secure
The devices you keep are the potential source of privacy breaches.
The devices you use, mostly smartphones, to stay connected to the internet world, hold your most private information and secrets.
Keeping your mobile secured with passwords and an extra layer of protection like screen lock and encryption helps you in keeping your data private and out of reach of abusers and stalkers.
Delete Data
Therefore, if you are someone who does not want to try all the tips mentioned above to secure data online and just wants to delete the data companies already have then here are the things you can try.
You can either remove yourself from the company’s databases or consult online guidelines to list opt-out options.
Summing Up
While it is extremely difficult to wipe yourself off from companies’ databases, you can still limit data loss by deleting doubtful and unnecessary applications from your phone. You can also adjust your privacy settings and use privacy tools like VPN for restricting your data from abusers and stalkers.
