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What reasons are there for being concerned about companies like google and meta etc collecting data and tracking me? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Please understandnim asking this question from a genuine place. I dont want the quora answer, i want the tech savvy, security expert minds of my fellow lemmings. If thats ok?

What happens to this data? What can/do they do with it? and why are so many people concerned about google tracking them?

Do i as an average user need to be concerned?

If so, What sorts of things can i do to avoid being tracked? Preferably without too much comprimise.

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[-] Thorny_Insight@lemm.ee 16 points 1 year ago

I think if people knew the extent to which these big-data algorithms can figure out things about you just based on the links you click and posts you upvote then they would be more concerned. If it was just that they knew my location, age and interests then I wouldn't really care much but the reality is that they probably know stuff about me, that even I don't.

I simply don't like the fact that this database exists somewhere because it can come back to bite me one day. Just imagine what a fascistic government could use data like this for. Or maybe not even that, but remember how we first didn't have chatGPT and no one thought we would for years but then it just appeared and now it's there. Well what if tomorrow someone comes up with an equally fun tool that you can put any person's name into and it'll give you access to all this data. I want my page on that app to be very brief and inconsistent.

I'm perfectly aware that it's impossible to use the internet and not leave any tracks at all, but I want to make sure that my tracks are incredibly difficult to follow and preferably that they don't lead anywhere.

this post was submitted on 01 Nov 2023

173 points (94.4% liked)

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