Data Privacy: Why You Should Care and What You Can Do

You’ll see the term “data privacy” coming up in the media more and more often as 2022 draws to a close. News of data breaches, big tech scandals, and cybercrimes are hitting the headlines with alarming frequency. It’s time to take a look at what data privacy is, what it means to you, and what you can do to protect yourself online.

What is data privacy?

Simply put, privacy is your right, as a law-abiding citizen, to be left alone. Barring things like criminal investigations, no person, company, organization or government has the right to intrude into or interfere with your private affairs.

Data privacy is an extension of this idea into the realm of information. Your right to privacy means that you also have the right to have the last word in what information is collected about you and how it’s used.

Why is data privacy so important?

Having your personal information readily available to companies and individuals leaves you far more open to discrimination, fraud, and victimization. Everything from nuisance robocalls and spam emails to doxxing, harassment, scams, and identity theft. 

The team behind an online data removal tool called Incogni conducted a survey of 2,310 Americans and found that 97% received spam emails, 94% had to deal with robocalls, 90% were aware of scam attempts directed against them, and 80% knew of personal data breaches. These are not rare occurrences but the everyday experiences of ordinary Americans.

Ready to take action? You’re not alone

Everyday people are starting to take data privacy seriously. When Apple introduced its App Tracking Transparency policy in iOS 14.5, 96% of US users opted out of app tracking. Living in the United State in 2022, it’s unrealistic to think that you can achieve 100% data privacy. There is, however, a lot you can do to reduce the amount of your data that’s out there.

Here’s how to stem the flow of your personal data at the source

First, let’s look at the ways in which you can reduce the amount of personal information you put out there for companies to aggregate. Not everything on this list will be for you, but anything you can do is going to be better than nothing, and every little bit helps.

Use a privacy-respecting web browser

Almost everything we do online, we do through a web browser. Browsers like Chrome, Safari, and Edge collect huge amounts of data on you. Switch to a privacy-respecting browser with built-in cookie management and tracking protection. Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and Brave are good options here and all have mobile versions.

Use trusted ad and tracker blockers

Although browsers like Firefox, DuckDuckGo, and Brave offer varying levels of protection against ads and trackers, you might consider installing a trusted browser extension to give you more control over what online activities tracking, fingerprinting, and ad-serving technologies can dig their claws into.

Be careful with browser extensions

Use as few browser extensions as possible. Check the permissions of the ones you do choose to install. Browser extensions can potentially see everything you do in the browser and some can even monitor keystrokes. Unless it’s Free and Open Source, it’s not really free, and you’re likely paying with your data.

Pay attention to what apps you use

Incogni recently conducted a study of the top 1,000 paid and unpaid apps available on the Google Play store. It found that unpaid apps share 7 times more data points on their users than paid ones. Apps with 500,000 or more downloads share 6.15 times more data than less popular ones.

You might not be paying money for free apps, but you’re likely paying with your personal data. Incogni found that 55.2% of the apps it analyzed admitted to sharing user data. Taking into account the fact that Google has a very particular definition of “sharing” and that this is basically an honor system, the real number is likely much higher.

So only download apps if you really need them. Check what permissions they require and don’t download them if they want access to things they couldn’t possibly need for any legitimate purpose.

Make good use of privacy and security settings

Whether in your operating system, web browser or some other software, it’s worth looking into the privacy and security settings and adjusting them to serve your needs. In a lot of proprietary software, the default settings serve the company at your expense.

Don’t use public WiFi without a VPN

Public or otherwise free WiFi can be an attractive proposition, especially while traveling. The problem is that everything you do online will pass through the hands of whoever is providing that WiFi connection.

Hackers can also impersonate WiFi hotspots and perform man-in-the-middle attacks, so even if you trust the provider, you can’t trust the hotspot. Always use a trusted VPN like Surfshark when connecting to public hotspots.

Avoid loyalty programs

Store loyalty programs can be pretty enticing. They’re often used as tools to collect data on you and your shopping habits, though. Incogni found that shopping apps shared the most user data out of any category.

The safest option is to only take part in loyalty programs that don’t require you to set up an account using your real details and only in stores that accept cash payments. Otherwise, check what discounts the loyalty program realistically offers, read their fine print, and decide if it’s really worth it for you.

Ditch social media (or at least the apps)

Incogni’s analysis of 1,000 Google Play apps found, unsurprisingly, that social media apps collected the most data. To protect your online privacy, delete any social media accounts you can live without. Request that those companies delete any data they have on you as you do so.

If you feel you can’t live without some of your social media, at least delete their apps. Using your browser to access their content will make a huge difference to the amount of data they’re able to get from you.

Some of your personal information will always be out there—here’s how to at least keep it off the market

Even if you did all of the above–even if you never touched an online device ever again, some of your personal information would still be out there. As a US citizen or even resident, there are public records on you scattered throughout the internet.

Your name, phone numbers, addresses, social media profiles, court records, arrest records, bankruptcy proceedings and judgments, tax liens, and more are all matters of public record. You might be able to get some of them suppressed, but most are there to stay.

It used to be that it’d take a lot of time and effort to track down all of these data points individually. Unfortunately, there are companies that specialize in gathering public records and creating searchable databases of individual profiles.

These companies—called data brokers—are in the business of profiting from your personal information, and business is good. In 2021, the data broker market was valued at over $257 billion. It’s projected to reach $365 billion by 2029.

Search for yourself online to find which data brokers (including people search sites) have your information and are making it discoverable to search engines. Look into data brokers that operate in your area to catch the ones that don’t index their search results.

Go through your list of data brokers and send them all opt-out requests. Each data broker has their own opt-out procedure that you need to follow to have your data removed.

There are an estimated 4,000 data brokers operating worldwide, with hundreds registered in the United States. Opting out of all of the ones that have your data is possible, but impractical. Incogni’s researchers estimate that it would take 304 hours to submit all those opt-out requests.

A better option is to make use of an automated data removal service. These services submit opt-out requests on your behalf and use automation to do so much faster than a human could.