The Current Value Of Your Personal Data

Nowadays, practically without realizing it, we are living in a Big Brother type society. We are being watched all the time and everywhere. And we don’t stop there: a wide variety of companies, people and institutions have access to our personal data without our being aware of it.

Our personal data is actually traded on a daily basis. When we access the internet there are programs that collect information about everything we do. What do we look for, when, how and why. What do we buy or not. Anyway, how is our behavior.

What do these companies do with our personal data? Unfortunately we don’t know for  sure . We know that they are used commercially because there is information that is sold to a number of companies, of which we may become potential customers.

Then, they execute very specific market strategies, according to our tastes and interests that appear in their material. However, many believe that governments as well as state agencies access our data to exercise a kind of constant “watch” over our lives.

Nothing is free on the Internet

Our personal data is so valuable that, for this exchange, we receive a series  of apparently free services. For example, search engines. Anyone can use them, theoretically free of charge. But in reality it’s not quite like that: we pay with information about ourselves.

The same happens on social networks. Facebook, Twitter or Instagram don’t even charge us 1 cent for us to use their platforms freely. However, they spend all their time collecting information, often absolutely private. All this work done by them is not out of simple curiosity. It is done because all this information has great business value.

Initially this seemed like a pretty fair exchange. Companies get something in return for offering us an endless variety of apps. The big problem is that there are also several aspects that are quite problematic. First of all, we end up not knowing what will be the use that will be given to our personal data . Second, we may eventually be manipulated in such a subtle way that it would be impossible to detect.

Personal data and conditioning

They say that in the past people had to be pressured or even tortured to hand over confidential information. Now, we share our personal data with a smile on our face. We may not even notice, but each photo of our family, friends, or ourselves adds some information. Every event we make public on the networks provides valuable commercial, political and even military data.

All websites have  cookies , including on social networks. They are installed on your device and their mission is to keep up with everything we do  online. Even if we erase them frequently, they have the ability to continue operating. Cookies  can sometimes  be activated remotely, and gain access to our private photos, videos, etc… When we allow  cookies , we accept that.

Based on this information, they are able to define our patterns of behavior. For example, if they detect that you like to travel, you will receive information about travel at all times. Of course, the offers that come to you will be carefully filtered. They will not offer you the best travel options, but information from those companies that paid for your data.

The hidden risks

Social networks organize all the information they collect from personal data. Based on this, they make assumptions about our commercial as well as social behavior. They deduce that we interact more with certain people. That’s why they place the activities of these people in the foreground, to the detriment of others. Without us noticing, they go on labeling us, organizing our own world.

Also, let us not forget that  there are many malicious people who know exactly what to do with our personal data. They also do their analysis on our data. Thus, without realizing it, we pass on information about our financial transactions, our financial condition, and a plethora of data that they end up taking advantage of. In certain cases, they also detect the way in which children and adolescents act. Often, due to their innocence, they end up becoming easy victims of criminals.

Anyway, our intention is to warn us to be more careful with our personal data . We should only accept  cookies from trusted websites. Social networks are not meant to make our private life public. They are actually a wonderful interaction mechanism, but we must be careful with our personal data. We must never forget that the Internet is not our only life, and we must always be aware of its pitfalls.