Internet Privacy Series

Internet privacy has become a hot topic in the last few years, but what does that really mean? Do you know how to safely and privately browse the web, or is every link you click on, every site you go to tracked and monitored for monetary gain by someone else. Someone once told me that if you are using a service on the Internet, and you don’t pay for it, you are the product not the customer. This is how Google, Facebook, and many other providers make money. They track you across the internet and sell your preferences and history to their clients.

In almost every case, no matter what site you hit, Google is there. Google’s most profitable service is the “Google Ads” service. This service is the most widely used Internet Ad service in the world. Google Ads is used by 97.8% of all websites that advertise. This means that if you hit a website with advertisements, you are most likely being tracked and followed by Google. Have you ever noticed that Internet Ads seem to follow you around? Are you seeing the same ads across multiple different websites? If you feel like this is happening, you aren’t crazy…. Since Google Ads is used by most websites that advertise, these sites all track you and monitor what you are doing. They then report this information back to Google. Google then determines what you like and targets advertising toward you. These ads are then displayed to you on every site that uses Google Ads. Sound creepy? It is. Even if you have nothing to hide, and no reason to hide your browsing preferences, do you still want Google and the entire advertising world to know about everything you do? To me, that’s akin to living in a glass house, where people can just walk by and watch you, anytime they want. Personally, I find it creepy and I don’t like it. Facebook does the same thing, except they do it by tracking you on Facebook. Both of these companies know far more about us than we should be comfortable with. In my opinion, we all should be doing a better job of protecting our privacy, rather than just giving it up for a few free services.

In the next few blog posts, I’ll go into how to protect your privacy, while you browse the web, and add some extra security as well. Who couldn’t use a little extra security?

So, check back here often to catch up on the new posts.