My data is mine
Monday, October 3, 2016
We normally don’t reveal our biographies, as well as our home address, to a stranger in the street, and yet we willingly publish the information on the Internet or store it on the machine from which we access the World Wide Web. Meanwhile, there are many more strangers on the Internet than surround us in the real world!
As the largest personal data aggregator in the world, Facebook uses our data for promotional purposes. But few people know what data is being used and sold. Below you can find the complete list of 98 items:
- Location
- Age
- Generation
- Sex
- Language
- Education
- Field of competency
- School
- Ethnicity
- Income and profit
- Home ownership and ownership type
- Core values
- Acreage
- Home size
- Year home was built
- Household composition
- Users whose birthdays are within the next 30 days
- Users who currently live away from their family or outside their home town
- People who are friends with someone who will soon celebrate their birthday, marriage, or betrothal, or who has recently relocated
- Users in long-distance relationships
- Users who have started a new relationship
- Users who recently started a new job
- Users who have recently gotten engaged
- Users who have recently gotten married
- Users who have recently relocated
- Users who are celebrating their birthdays soon
- Parents
- Parents-to-be
- Mothers, divided into "groups"
- Users who are likely to be involved in politics
- Conservatives and Liberals
- Marital Status
- Employer
- Industry
- Job Title
- Office type
- Interests
- Users who own a motorcycle
- Users who are planning to buy a car
- Users who have recently purchased spare parts or accessories for their car
- Users who may need spare parts or some services for their car
- Make and model of the car you drive
- Year car was purchased
- Vehicle age
- How much the user can afford to spend on their next car
- Where the user can buy their next car
- Number of employees in your company
- Users who have a small business
- Users who are employed as managers
- Users who have donated to charity (arranged by type)
- Operating system
- Users who play browser games
- Users who have a game console
- Users who created an event on Facebook
- People who have used Facebook Payments
- Users who spent more than average via Facebook Payments
- Users who manage content on Facebook pages
- Users who have recently uploaded photos on Facebook
- Browser
- Email hoster
- Users who will eventually start using new technologies
- Emigrants
- Users who are associated with a credit union, national bank, or regional bank
- Investors (divided by investment types)
- Number of credit lines
- Users who actively use bank cards
- Type of bank card
- Users who have a debit card
- Users who have savings accounts
- Users who listen to the radio
- TV show preferences
- Users who use mobile devices
- Internet connection type
- Users who have recently purchased a smartphone or tablet
- Users who access the Internet via a smartphone or tablet
- Users who use coupons
- Clothes a user buys
- The time of year a user makes more purchases
- Users who "very" often buy beer, wine, or other spirits
- Users who buy groceries (and the kinds of groceries they purchase)
- Users who purchase cosmetics
- Users who buy medicines
- Users who spend money to purchase home goods
- Users who spend money on goods for children or pets
- Users who make more household purchases than average
- Users who tend to make purchases online (or offline)
- Type of restaurants a user dines at
- Types of shops where a user purchases goods
- Users who are "susceptible" to proposals from companies offering online auto insurance, higher education, or mortgages, and prepaid debit cards/satellite TV
- How much time a user lives at home
- Users who may relocate in the near future
- Users who are interested in the Olympics, football, cricket, or Ramadan
- Users who often travel for business or pleasure
- Users who drive or commute to get to work
- Type of vacation a user takes
- Users who have recently returned from a trip
- Users who have recently used travel apps
- Users who prefer timeshare holidays
A scary list, isn't it? But not because Facebook is collecting this data. After all, the social media site honestly warns users in its license agreement and the license agreements of the programs it owns that this information will be used.
Address book. You provide us the phone numbers of WhatsApp users and your other contacts in your mobile phone address book on a regular basis. You confirm you are authorized to provide us such numbers to allow us to provide our Services.
The problem is that this data can be seized by criminals to gain access to your computer. Are you sure you want to share this information with strangers?
The Anti-virus Times recommends
- If you don't want to share your personal information with the entire world, don’t publish it on social media or in personal messages of any kind.
- Do not store your personal data on your desktop, laptop, or handheld.
- Having received personal information about your friends or partners, don’t store it on your personal computer or mobile device. If your computer leaks the information, they are not going to be very happy with you.
- Take steps to make sure your data is secure: do not allow strangers to use your computer; use an anti-virus; install updates; and don't fall into phishing traps.
- And if you don't want to transmit your personal information, the option usually exists to decline such a transfer.
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Comments
vasvet
08:22:00 2018-07-21