With the new FCC Chairman Ajit Pai rolling back the privacy guidelines that had been required by the privacy safeguards enacted by the FCC last year, you might be concerned about your personal information being collected, compiled, and potentially revealed.
I decided to check into it a bit.
One thing that I realized was that there are major problems with the privacy rules that were passed last year by Wheeler and the FCC when it was under Democratic control. The way the rules were worded (because ISPs are governed by the FCC), an Internet Service Provider’s customers were required to “opt-in” to any information-sharing program. But in contrast providers like Google and Facebook are governed by the FTC’s privacy rules governing “edge providers” which require their customers to “opt-out” of any arrangement that monetizes personal data.
An edge provider is basically a company, or individual, that provides Internet services or content over the Internet. The big examples of edge providers are Amazon, YouTube, Google, and Facebook.
Now the difference between “opt-in” and “opt-out” is that with "opt-in" you would have to specifically tell them that they can use your data but with "opt-out" you have to specifically tell them not to use your data.
So Google, who knows every search you do, can use that info to advertise to you and guide its advertisers in which ads to show you unless you specifically opt-out. Also, Facebook - and you know what info Facebook knows about you - you can be sure that they use it to sell ads to their advertisers.
With all the recent hoopla about the FCC and the Republican Congress killing broadband privacy rules we must realize that it is all just smoke and mirrors when it comes to protecting your privacy. Does it really matter if it is Google and Facebook or your ISP who is gathering the data without your knowledge? Who is to say that Google won’t just sell your information to your ISP anyway? If the ISPs are advertising through Google or Facebook (and who isn’t?) that data is being applied by those "edge providers" anyway.
You can see some of the profile that Facebook has compiled about you. It may have data as to whether you are parents of teenagers, if you live in your hometown, what your political affiliation is, and what browser and model phone you use.
You may have noticed that sometimes you see ads on Facebook based on searches you have made outside of Facebook. That is why they want all the data they can get about you.
From Facebook ad settings: “One of the ways we show you ads is based on your use of websites and apps that use Facebook's technologies. For example, if you visit travel websites, you might then see ads on Facebook for hotel deals. We call this online interest-based advertising.”
Facebook actually has a whole tutorial about Facebook advertising accessible from the "ad preferences" selection under "settings". It's interesting, and if you have an interest as to how your information is being used to market to you, then check it out. Even if you don’t use Facebook at all, many of the same strategies are used by other online and offline marketing programs.
What Facebook Knows About You
Some of the ways Facebook gathers and uses data is:
- Visits to websites with Facebook code on it
- Facebook pages you like
- Facebook groups you are members of
- Places where you have "checked in" on Facebook
- Retail loyalty programs you are a member of
- Purchases you have made at retail stores
- Where you have used your phone (through GPS info)
- Purchases you have made online (or items you have added to a shopping cart)
- Information on your Facebook or Instagram profile
- Basically anything you do on Facebook or on a web page with a Facebook button
You may wonder how they came up with some of the data on your profile they have built. They are always watching. At some point, you have undertaken some action online (or possibly off), that led Facebook to believe that you liked organic compounds or lawnmowers. I kid you not! Lawnmowers were in my ad preferences profile on Facebook. I must have mentioned a lawnmower at one time. And organic compounds? I don’t get it. This shows that not all the data collected about you will be valid.
Currently, Facebook and Google account for about 70% of all online advertising.
On Google’s website, it says "My Activity is the central place where you can find everything you have searched, viewed, and watched using our services. To make it easier to recall your past online activity, we give you tools to search by topic, date, and product."
Oh, I see, they are keeping a record of everything we have ever searched for, viewed and watched (some might call it spying on us) as a favor to us.
What Google Knows About You
When you use Google services like search or maps, they may gather and store data like:
- Things you search for
- Websites you go to
- Videos you view on YouTube
- Purchases you make
- Ads you click on
- Your location
- Information on the type of device you are using
- Your IP address
- Cookie information
If you have a Google account they also collect and store data about your:
- Name
- Birthday
- Gender
- Emails you send and receive on Gmail
- Contacts
- Calendar events
- Photos and videos
- Documents etc., on Google Drive
In December 2009, in response to criticisms about Google’s practices, Eric Schmidt, Google's CEO, said, "If you have something that you don't want anyone to know, maybe you shouldn't be doing it in the first place.“
Last summer Google quietly changed its privacy policy to drop its ban on using personal info in its ad service. Again, you can opt-out but to do so you must go to Google’s "Activity Controls" in the "My Account" page of your Google account.
Google has paid out millions of dollars in court settlements and fines as a result of violating privacy concerns through Google products like the Google Maps Camera Car, Gmail, Adsense, and Analytics. Google gives website owners free analytics tools to install in their websites, but Google has all of the data from all the websites that have Google analytics installed in them.
Many of the companies you do business with, and the websites you visit, are required to give you privacy notices and they have terms of service that explain their regular business and their information-sharing practices. You have the right to limit some, but not all, of the sharing of your information. The laws and practices are supposed to balance your right to privacy with a company's need for information in their normal business activities.
Have You Ever Read a Privacy Notice?
We have become so accustomed to sharing our sensitive info, that even though businesses are required to let you know what information they are gathering (at least in part) and what they are doing with that data, very few people actually read and understand the different notices they are required to click before they can complete whatever action they are engaged in at the moment.
I invite you to go check all the privacy data on Facebook and Google. They both have pages and pages of data, some of it with cute graphics of soccer players and such to make you feel that you are safe giving them your data.
All of this data collection is even more worrisome in light of the recent Wiki leaked information about how the US Government is using Google, Facebook, Microsoft, and other tech companies to help spy on everyone... including Americans.
Google CEO Schmidt bragged several years ago about Google’s use of the information they collect, "If I look at enough of your messaging and your locations, and use artificial intelligence, we can predict where you are going to go.”
As Edward Snowden pointed out, the collection of data, like location info and purchases can be analyzed against another person’s info and links could be made. If you were in the same coffee shop as a terrorism suspect, and then you rode the same subway and bought something in the same donut shop, you could be forever linked in "the cloud".
Opt-in or opt-out?
If you want to be in charge of what data these websites collect about you, then I recommend that you go to the "Settings" page of each one and select what data they can collect and use. It doesn’t count if you just post something on your Facebook page saying that you don’t give them permission, as you may occasionally see posted on Facebook. You need to go to your ad preferences page in the settings menu to change your privacy settings. If you haven’t recently gone to that page, I encourage you to go there and check it out. You will probably be shocked. Another thing you can do to throw a wrench in their data is to occasionally do a random search and go to websites that specialize in something like, say, organic compounds or lawnmowers.