In case you didn’t know yet, the Google and Facebook business model is based on the exploitation of your personal data for the purpose of advertising targeting. When it’s “free “, you are the product!
Whatever services these companies render to you, they all have the sole objective of collecting as much information as possible to establish the profile of your preferences, from the most insignificant to the most intimate.
Google allows you to view a summary of the data collected via the site adssettings.google.com, where you will find some of your affinities. You will also find at the bottom of this page that Google is obviously familiar with your gender and age. By visiting myactivity.google.com you will find the full history of your deeds and actions on Google.com, including all your searches as well as the details of the ads viewed on Gmail. And on google.com/maps/timeline you will be able to re-browse the journeys recorded by Google Maps. Not to mention, of course, the wealth of information that is contained in all your emails for Gmail, or the history of your compulsive viewing sessions on Youtube, which further refines the algorithm of recommendations every day.
On Facebook side, every like, every share and every comment are meticulously processed to define the contours of your digital identity, resold at auction to millions of advertisers.
When you see an advertisement in the newsfeed, click on the link that allows you to discover the targeting criteria applied by the advertiser in search of your attention. If necessary, you may refuse to be targeted again.
Can we use these two services and refuse to be subject to permanent profiling? Google allows you to disable archival storage of your history, both on Google.com and on Google Maps. You can also show your willingness not to be subject to advertising targeting. Facebook also allows you to disable targeting settings, one by one. The sustainability of the Google and Facebook model is of course based on the fact that only a minority of users do the necessary to reduce or disable targeting functions.
It cannot be stressed often enough: when a service is free, there must be something fishy hidden. In exchange for the “free”, you agree to be the product.
To minimize the abusive collection of your personal data, choose a browser like URbrowser, which openly gives you a view of the data you agree to or not to share. And minimize the amount of information you openly share on the web, to prevent your narcissism from coming back to you in a mild form of a deluge of advertisements or in a more insidious way, through data theft of which you were promised confidentiality
And remember a time not so far where one could blossom without exposing himself/herself …
