“Data Privacy” is a term we’re all used to hearing. By now, most of us know there is something important about it. But the importance of your online data isn’t seen as something tangible like, say, “saving money” or “losing weight” — and it should be.
So why does your Data Privacy matter?
Before we dive into why your data privacy is so important, let’s first consider what “data” we’re talking about.
What is the “Data” in “Data Privacy”?
When you interact with virtually ANYTHING online, there is usually some form of tracking involved.
Many times, this tracking can seem relatively harmless.
Consider what happens when you visit a website (like this one). The owners of the website want to know if their content is useful to visitors so they can provide more of that content as a valuable service. To understand this, they use analytics tools that track how many times people viewed the content, how long they spent reading it, if they scrolled down past the first paragraph, etc.
This is “data”, but it’s anonymous. It’s not tied to you as an individual. It may say “100 people read this article” but doesn’t say “Jane Smith read the whole article and then commented on it, but Mike Jones didn’t make it past the first paragraph.”
But now consider websites where there is more at stake than the usefulness of the content — like online retailers. In these cases, there is a far more complex tracking system in place that aims to not only associate specific actions and interests to you personally, but then uses that “data” to get you to spend some money. Ok, ok, maybe you really DID want that pair of boots, but anyway… it’s just business, right?
Maybe it is just business. But maybe it’s personal too.
Where things can affect you personally is when that detailed behavioral data is being shared and even sold to third parties.
Sharing or Selling Your Data
Big online retailers, subscription services, media outlets, and more can collect an enormous amount of data about an enormous number of users — things like your email and password, your date of birth (think: loyalty programs that like to reward you on your birthday), what you left in your shopping cart, what you purchased and your spending patterns, what you clicked on, your interests, your contact information and location, and more.
If you maintain an account with the website, that data is easily associated directly with you.
If you’re just a visitor to the website, that data may be more or less anonymous — but even so, it’s still sensitive. (More below.)
With such a large treasure trove of information on their hands, some companies are tempted to use that for extra gains. (Note: Privacy Partners DOES NOT share or sell your information under any circumstances!)
For example, they might use it to lower their advertising costs by sharing their email list with companies like Meta (Facebook, Instagram) to find other users with characteristics similar to your in hopes they too will transact. Meta then ties that data into their own system to enhance the profiles they’ve built around their own users.
In other cases, companies with such a wealth of information about their users may outright sell that data to Data Brokers or other marketing companies for a tidy sum of money.
And in the very worst case scenario, a data breach occurs where that treasure trove of customer data is stolen by a hacker and put up for sale on the “Dark Web” where all sorts of unsavory characters can get access to it.
You can stop all of these scenarios by “opting-out” from the sharing or sale of your data, and by requesting the deletion of your data from their systems. (This is what we do on your behalf with our service!)
But why is it important to “opt-out” and delete your data from these companies? After all, what can anyone do with knowing you purchased a pair of boots and you live in Dallas Texas? And if you never registered an account and just made your purchase as a “visitor” to the online retailer, what’s the harm in “anonymous” information?
How “Anonymous” Can You Be?
Since the occurrence of a data breach can leave companies open to costly lawsuits, many are careful to securely store their data and do their best to “anonymize” it for systems they share it with (such as ad tracking or analytics platforms).
This means that even if they can identify “you” when you arrive on the website and log-in, they don’t share information about you with tracking systems unless it’s “de-identified”. The systems know you as an ID number. They know tracking details associated with your ID number. But they don’t store your details in a form that is personally identifiable — at least to the degree they maintain compliance with privacy laws.
But given enough “de-identified” data, is it possible to stitch together a strong enough profile to actually identify you personally? As it turns out, it is surprisingly likely.
Here’s where it gets scary.
In 2019, a team of data researchers published a paper in Nature Communications that showed that 15 data points can identify 99.98% of Americans. Using just 3 (zip code, gender, and date of birth), they still identify 83%.
So if Retailer 1 knows “A, B, and C” about *someone*, and Media Outlet 2 knows “X, Y, and Z” about that same *someone*, and both sell their “anonymized” data to Data Broker 3, then now Data Broker 3 has received six unique points of data about *someone*. And with six points of data, there’s a strong chance that *someone* can actually be identified within their vast pool of individual profiles by matching the points of data.
Data Brokers typically gather and sell HUNDREDS of data points around each individual.
And remember the Cambridge Analytica scandal which broke in 2018, and where data from over 80 million Facebook users was gathered without user permission? Cambridge Analytica claimed to have access to 5000 data points on every American Citizen.
Can you imagine how useful your identified data is to scammers, spammers and identity thieves?
What Can You Do About Data Privacy?
You can attack this potential exposure of your personal data on two fronts.
First, you can opt-out and delete your data from Data Brokers. We provide guides to help you do this with the most powerful Data Brokers.
Second, you can opt-out and delete your data from companies you do business with — retailers, subscription services, membership services, media outlets and more. You can sign-up for a free account with us, tell us who you want your data removed from, and we’ll leverage new U.S. state privacy laws to get that data removed!
Data privacy is your right! Unfortunately most people don’t consider it to be an important one until it’s too late. But now you have the tools to exercise your rights and protect your data — so use them!
