What You Do Online Is Your Business, Not Ours

https://thehackernews.com/2016/07/hacking-smartwatch-atm.html ↩︎

https://money.cnn.com/2015/11/12/technology/instaagent-instagram/index.html A recent study from Binghamton University also suggests your smartwatch or fitness tracker is not as secure as you think – and it could be used to steal your ATM PIN code. ↩︎

https://www.google.com/chrome/privacy/ A record of what you downloaded from websites. ↩︎

https://gvwire.com/2020/06/23/how-much-is-our-personal-data-worth/ The CCPA aims to protect over $12 billion worth of personal information annually. ↩︎

https://www.cnbc.com/2018/06/04/facebook-reportedly-gave-personal-data-to-60-companies-including-apple-amazon-and-samsung.html Facebook had formed at least 60 data-sharing partnerships with device makers including Apple, Amazon, Microsoft and Samsung over the last 10 years. Without explicit consent, these deals granted device makers access to a Facebook user’s relationship status, political leaning, education history, religion and upcoming events, the Times reported. ↩︎

https://marketingland.com/almost-70-of-digital-ad-spending-going-to-google-facebook-amazon-says-analyst-firm-262565 Google, Facebook and Amazon are the top three digital ad platforms in the U.S. Together they capture just under 70% of all digital ad dollars spent according to eMarketer. More than two-thirds of all digital spending. The three companies are collecting 68.1% of digital ad spending says the firm’s latest estimates. ↩︎

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-clear-your-cache-on-any-browser Chrome doesn’t give you the option to not collect your browser history, but earlier this summer, Google announced it would let people request that Google delete Location History and Web & App Activity every three months or every 18 months. ↩︎

https://protonmail.com/blog/best-browser-for-privacy/ However, unlike Chrome, Brave does not collect any data about your online activity. Your data remains private and on your device. ↩︎

https://www.pcmag.com/how-to/how-to-clear-your-cache-on-any-browser Chrome doesn’t give you the option to not collect your browser history, but earlier this summer, Google announced it would let people request that Google delete Location History and Web & App Activity every three months or every 18 months. ↩︎

https://www.theverge.com/2018/10/24/18017832/google-search-privacy-changes-2018 Google stores a record of everything you search for on Google.com if you’re logged into your Google Account. You can clear your local browser history, but that won’t clear what’s stored on Google’s servers. ↩︎

https://www.computerworld.com/article/3292619/the-brave-browser-basics-what-it-does-how-it-differs-from-rivals.html The web browser from Brave Software relies on an unusual business… sworn that it does not, and will not, store any user data on its servers. ↩︎

https://www.eff.org/deeplinks/2020/03/google-says-it-doesnt-sell-your-data-heres-how-company-shares-monetizes-and Google monetizes what it observes about people in two major ways: It uses data to build individual profiles with demographics and interests, then lets advertisers target groups of people based on those traits. It shares data with advertisers directly and asks them to bid on individual ads ↩︎

Types of web trackers…Cookies,…Super Cookies,…Embedded scripts,…Fingerprinters ↩︎

https://www.technologyreview.com/2016/05/18/160139/largest-study-of-online-tracking-proves-google-really-is-watching-us-all/ That’s one lesson from the largest study yet of the technology that tracks people’s movements around the Web. When Princeton researchers logged the use of tracking code on the Internet’s million most popular websites, Google code was found on a majority of them. Google Analytics, a product used to log visitors to websites that integrates with the company’s ad-targeting systems, was found on almost 70 percent of sites. DoubleClick, a dedicated ad-serving system from Google, was found on close to 50 percent of sites. The top five most common tracking tools were all Google-owned. ↩︎

https://brave.com/features/ Whenever possible using the HTTPS Everywhere list, Brave automatically upgrades to HTTPS for secure, encrypted communications when an ordinary browser would use an insecure connection. ↩︎

https://www.nytimes.com/2018/08/15/technology/personaltech/stop-targeted-stalker-ads.html ↩︎

https://www.betterads.org/standards/ ↩︎

https://blog.chromium.org/2018/02/how-chromes-ad-filtering-works.html ↩︎

https://www.washingtonpost.com/technology/2019/06/27/help-desk-how-fight-spies-your-chrome-browser/ There is one Chrome setting that privacy advocates disagree on: sending a “Do Not Track” request with your browsing traffic. Once upon a time, this was a good idea — but the industry hasn’t taken action on it, and now some data companies actually use it as one more way to track people. The argument for turning it on: You’re telling sites you specifically do not consent to them tracking you. ↩︎

https://helpdeskgeek.com/how-to/how-to-stop-personalized-ads-and-search-results-in-google-and-facebook/ Unfortunately, there isn’t really a way to stop Google from gathering data on what you search… ↩︎

https://ads-blocker.com/brave/ Brave is currently the only browser that works by default as an ad blocker and helps avoiding annoying commercials, strange followers, ugly banners and skips video commercials on the Internet! How awesome is that? ↩︎

https://support.google.com/chrome/answer/7440301?co=GENIE.Platform%3DAndroid&hl=en Incognito mode stops Chrome from saving your browsing activity to your local history. Your activity, like your location, might still be visible to: Websites you visit, including the ads and resources used on those sites Websites you sign in to Your employer, school, or whoever runs the network you’re using Your internet service provider Search engines Search engines may show search suggestions based on your location or activity in your current Incognito browsing session. ↩︎

https://www.mentalfloss.com/article/541658/why-browsing-incognito-mode-isnt-private-you-think Your internet service provider (ISP) can see your activity. If you’re logged into your company or school’s Wi-Fi, your boss or school administrators can still see what you’re doing on that network. ↩︎

https://nordvpn.com/blog/incognito-mode-not-as-private-as-you-think/ Your private browsing mode only blocks your own device from recording your traffic. You can still be tracked with your IP address (we have a tool that shows you what your IP address reveals about you). Your browsing data can still be collected by your ISP, your employer, and any other third party that can track your IP address. ↩︎

https://www.fastcompany.com/90321235/i-protected-my-privacy-by-ditching-chrome-for-brave-and-so-should-you … forwards your request to its final destination. This makes it virtually impossible for the website you are accessing to know that the request came from your computer. ↩︎

https://cxl.com/blog/online-manipulation-all-the-ways-youre-currently-being-deceived/ As the SEO Doctor pointed out, even Google isn’t always so righteous in their practices. He gave two examples of their (possible) dark pattern of disguising ads. ↩︎