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What reasons are there for being concerned about companies like google and meta etc collecting data and tracking me? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by [email protected] to c/[email protected]

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Please understandnim asking this question from a genuine place. I dont want the quora answer, i want the tech savvy, security expert minds of my fellow lemmings. If thats ok?

What happens to this data? What can/do they do with it? and why are so many people concerned about google tracking them?

Do i as an average user need to be concerned?

If so, What sorts of things can i do to avoid being tracked? Preferably without too much comprimise.

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[–] [email protected] 4 points 1 year ago

Personally I feel more easy minded because I know that whatever I do online leaves as little trace as usual. If I go out by myself say for a drive and I get back home I expect no one to ever know that I went away and where unless I decide to say so. Same goes for online activity. I would expect nothing to be tied to me and whatever I do to go unnoticed unless for some reason I agree with sharing such data. It's often said though that with privacy comes less convenience and that is true: not having app features ready before you even ask or easily paying or doing other things online so I see how wanting convenience over privacy can be preferable. For me though, the point I made in the beginning is stronger and motivates me.

Also on a side note I watched a video from Louis Rossman where he talked about some kind of police radio going stolen and the authorities went ask google for people in that area that searched that specific model online to help track that person down so... yeah, I'm already not a fan of leaving traces I don't want to leave. Let alone those that might make the authorities mistake me for a criminal.

Personally I'm trying to be as offline and anonimous as possible. I'm moving away from cloud storage and if a service can be used with a client without an account where I can locally save and back up things I like then I'm using that. The biggest challenge right now is youtube as a platform with that huge of a content and a decent algorithm for suggestions is yet to be created.