{"id":406,"date":"2020-11-16T22:31:18","date_gmt":"2020-11-16T22:31:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/bootstrap-it.com\/blog\/?p=406"},"modified":"2020-11-22T03:05:34","modified_gmt":"2020-11-22T03:05:34","slug":"how-companies-get-your-data-and-what-they-can-do-with-it","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/bootstrap-it.com\/blog\/?p=406","title":{"rendered":"How Companies Get Your Data \u2013 And What They Can Do With It"},"content":{"rendered":"
<\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/a><\/div>\n

Curious about what kinds of personal and even private data you may be exposing through the course of a normal day on the internet? How about using \u201call kinds\u201d as a starting point?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Here, adapted from my new book, Keeping Up: Backgrounders to all the big technology trends you can’t afford to ignore<\/a><\/em>, is a way to break down the scope and nature of the problem by platform.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Financial transactions<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Take a moment to visualize what\u2019s involved in a simple online credit card purchase. You probably signed into the merchant\u2019s website using your email address as an account identifier and a (hopefully) unique password. After browsing a few pages, you\u2019ll add one or more more items to the site\u2019s virtual shopping cart.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you\u2019ve got everything you need, you\u2019ll begin the checkout process, entering shipping information, including a street address and your phone number. You might also enter the account number of the loyalty card the merchant sent you and a coupon code you received in an email marketing message.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, the key step involves entering your payment information. For a credit card, this will probably include the card owner\u2019s name and address, and the card\u2019s number, expiration date, and a security code.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Assuming the merchant’s infrastructure is compliant with Payment Card Industry Data Security Standard (PCI-DSS) protocols for handling financial information, then it\u2019s relatively unlikely that this information will be stolen and sold by criminals. But either way, it will still exist within the merchant\u2019s own database.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To flesh all this out a bit, understand that using your loyalty card account and coupon code can communicate a lot of information about your shopping and lifestyle preferences. Not to mention records of some of your previous activities. And your site account comes with contact information and your home location.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All of that information can, at least in theory, be stitched together to create a robust profile of you as a consumer and citizen.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200c\u200cIt\u2019s for these reasons that I personally prefer using third-party e-commerce payment systems like PayPal because such transactions leave no record of my specific payment method on the merchant\u2019s own databases.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Modern operating systems are built from the ground up to connect to the internet in multiple ways. They\u2019ll often automatically query online software repositories for patches and updates and \u201cask\u201d for remote help when something goes wrong.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Some performance diagnostics data is sent and stored online, where it can contribute to statistical analysis or bug diagnosis and fixes. Individual software packages might connect to remote servers independently of the OS to get their own things done.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

All that\u2019s fine. Except that you might have a hard time being sure whether all the data coming and going between your device and the internet is stuff you\u2019re OK sharing.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Can you know that private files and personal information aren\u2019t being swept in with all the other data? And are you confident that none of your data will ever accidentally find its way into some unexpected application lying beyond your control?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

To illustrate the problem, I\u2019d refer you to devices powered by digital assistants like Amazon\u2019s Alexa and the Google Assistant (\u201cOK Google\u201d). Since, by definition, the microphones used by digital assistants are constantly listening for their key word (\u201cAlexa\u2026\u201d), everything anyone says within range of the device is registered.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

At least some of those conversations are also recorded and stored online and, as it turns out, some of those have eventually been heard by human beings working for the vendor. In at least one case, an inadvertently-recorded conversation was used to convict a murder suspect (not that we\u2019re opposed to convicting murderers).<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Amazon, Google, and other players in this space are aware of the issue and are trying to address it. But it\u2019s unlikely they\u2019ll ever fully solve it. Remember, convenience, security, and privacy don\u2019t work well together.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Now if you think the information from computers and tablets that can be tracked and recorded is creepy, wait \u2019till you hear about thermostats and light bulbs.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

As more and more household appliances and tools are adopted as part of \u201csmart home\u201d systems, more and more streams of performance data will be generated alongside them.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And, as has already been demonstrated in multiple real-world applications, all that data can be programmatically interpreted to reveal significant information about what\u2019s going on in a home and who\u2019s doing it.\u200c\u200c<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Mobile devices<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Have you ever stopped in the middle of a journey, pulled out your smartphone, and checked a digital map for directions? Of course you have.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Well, the map application is using your current location information and sending you valuable information but, at the same time, you\u2019re sending some equally valuable information back. What kind of information might that be?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I once read about a mischievous fellow in Germany who borrowed a few dozen smartphones, loaded them up on a kids\u2019 wagon, and slowly pulled the wagon down the middle of an empty city street. It wasn\u2019t long before Google Maps was reporting a serious traffic jam where there wasn\u2019t one.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

How does the Google Maps app know more about your local traffic conditions than you do? One important class of data that feeds their system is obtained through constant monitoring of the location, velocity, and direction of movement of every active Android phone they can reach – including your Android phone.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I, for one, appreciate this service and I don\u2019t much mind the way my data is used. But I\u2019m also aware that, one day, that data might be used in ways that sharply conflict with my interests. Call it a calculated risk.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Of course, it\u2019s not just GPS-based movement information that Google and Apple – the creators of the two most popular mobile operating systems – are getting. They, along with a few other industry players, are also handling the records of all of our search engine activity and the data returned by exercise and health monitoring applications.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

In other words, should they decide to, many tech companies could effortlessly compile profiles describing our precise movements, plans, and health status. And from there, it\u2019s not a huge leap to imagine the owners of such data predicting what we\u2019re likely to do in the coming weeks and months.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Web browsers<\/h2>\n\n\n\n

Most of us use web browsers for our daily interactions with the internet. And, all things considered, web browsers are pretty miraculous creations. They often act as an impossibly powerful concierge, bringing us all the riches of humanity without even breaking into a sweat.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

But, as I\u2019m sure you can already anticipate, all that power comes with a trade-off.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

For just a taste of the information your browser freely shares about you, take a look at the Google Analytics page shown in the figure below.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\u200c\u200cThis dashboard displays a visual summary describing all the visits to my own\u00a0bootstrap-it.com site<\/a>\u00a0over the previous seven days. From the data that was collected, I can see:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

\"\"\/<\/figure>\n\n\n\n