It’s no secret that tech companies act as collectors and sellers of data. However, the reality is that most companies are not simply taking and selling your data; they are analyzing it to learn all about you.
In the modern technology-based world, a digital footprint detailing how you interact with technology exists within the depths of the internet, containing information such as what you search, buy or watch.
This data is valuable to companies because it allows them to create detailed digital profiles of individual users, helping them attract customers.
How? Through targeted advertisements.
Companies that are looking to advertise online do not know your identity information, such as your name or age; instead, they target you based on your digital behavior or interests.
“I know there have been times where I clicked on something, and immediately got multiple ads relating to it shortly after,” said junior Paul Raskin.
This business model is extremely powerful, as technology is used every day around the world, and each user’s activity online can be turned into profit.
When you scroll through social media, the companies that own the platform analyze all of your activity and turn that into numerical data, which will eventually be used by advertising companies to predict what you are most likely to buy.
Junior Jude Ornstein said, “The internet might know more about me than I do. The amount of information that companies like Meta or Google know about me is probably a lot more than I’d like to think.”
Google, the most used search engine in the world, keeps track of your search history to provide you with what it thinks are relevant advertisements. Amazon tracks your purchase history to recommend products related to what you have bought.
All of the biggest tech companies are tracking your data to provide you with what they think would be the most personalized experience.
However, internet users have been concerned about their digital privacy and the transparency of these companies.
On the other hand, many users are completely unaware that their data is tracked in the first place. Companies are technically required to tell their users about data collection, but only around 5 percent of internet users read privacy policies or terms of service.
“When I create an account on a website, I never read through the company’s policies, and I doubt anyone else does either. I’m just trying to sign up as quickly as possible, so I usually just blindly accept their ‘Terms and Conditions,’” said junior Dov Brown.
Some companies share the data they collect with third parties. On top of this, the data collection industry is always growing, leading to online consumer data being widely available.
This led governments to introduce laws that aim to protect online users’ privacy. For example, laws like the General Data Protection Regulation in Europe and similar models in U.S. states are meant to give users more control over their personal information when on the internet. Usually, their enforcement is limited, and their overall effectiveness is low.
Junior Noah Stoch said, “It’s near impossible to monitor the internet in this way, which is why every big tech company can participate in these practices.”
The ultimate question on this topic is not whether companies are selling your data, but how they are using it.
The digital data and analytics that have been generated by the billions of internet users have grown to become some of the most valuable resources in the eyes of large tech companies in the modern world, creating a massive multi-billion-dollar industry.
Technology in the modern digital world is constantly evolving, and data collection and analysis are following. As a result, users need to be aware of this happening as it evolves and as digital privacy drifts further away.
