YouMMe Movie: Money from your data
What happens with my data
Background information
Personal data on the Internet
In today’s digital world, we leave all traces that provide a lot of information about our everyday life and our preferences. Smart TVs, speakers and phones even “hear” and “report” intimate details from our lives. Each of us should ask ourselves what we want to reveal publicly on digital devices – from recording daily calorie consumption to photos on social media, voice recordings and online shopping history.
Who collects my data and how is it used?
In the interest of your own security, data such as IP addresses (information about the device on which you access a website) can be used to prevent illegal access to your account. Other types of data such as names, telephone numbers and addresses are needed to get a package, for example.
All of this data, along with information about your interests, is most often collected and analyzed by social media so that it shows you suitable advertisements. In any social network, you can click on “Why do I see this advertisement?” In the top right corner of the ad and find out which of your activities or information is used to show you the ad.
It should come as no surprise that Google knows us better than our grandmother. The search engine collects information about your search history around the clock – saves information about searches, clicks, about posts that we have read and creates a detailed user profile. We cannot know how the provider uses this profile. The official explanation is that the information gathered helps the search engine serve accurate search results and personalized advertisements that would serve our interests. However, we are rarely aware of how detailed Google already knows us – in the name of targeted advertisements.
Inform yourself!
People must be able to determine how their personal data and the traces left on the Internet are used. The best practice is to automatically delete each user’s data within 24 hours of accessing a website, easy-to-read and understandable privacy statements, and a system where the company doesn’t know who uses it.
The risks
It may happen that even services that are planned with the best of intentions fail to provide users with reasonable control. Unclear general terms of use or a contract that is difficult to read due to the complicated language mean that the user has to put more effort into understanding them and making an informed choice. People are becoming increasingly aware of what data is collected about them, how it is used and who benefits from it. They may turn their backs on products and services that do not respect their confidentiality needs.
Practical tips
Google and my data
Each of us can view his user profile – by clicking on the profile picture in the top right corner of the Google page. Log in to your Google account, go to “Settings”, click on “Data & Personalization”. The information can be found under “Ad Personalization”, where you will find a detailed list. It is quite long and each of the buttons is related to a topic of our profile and our interests.
Protect your data on the Internet
Research for potential security holes and problems with personal information before buying anything online, especially when it comes to a smart device. Look for reviews or articles about this device that provide information about security or privacy issues. Check if you can make the device more secure by changing the password and privacy settings. Make sure that the device is updated regularly so that all security gaps can be closed.
For maximum security and data protection on your devices
Many products and online services come with minimal security settings and collect a lot of important information about you – so change the settings for better security and more data protection. Search for the functions “Advertising ID”, “Location access”, “Biometric data”, “Analysis of voice recordings”. Most of the time, you can turn them off using the “Privacy Settings”. If you learn of an incident that could affect your device, visit the device manufacturer’s website or contact the retailer where you purchased it for advice on what to do.
Keep the software on the devices up to date
Devices and apps are usually updated automatically unless the user has expressly prohibited it. Find out how to check for updates on your devices and update regularly. Most software vendors release updates when they discover security vulnerabilities. Sometimes the update can be done without the knowledge of the user, so you can find out about the update history in “Software updates”: the date of the last update, the date of the last check.
Switch off superfluous things
Turn off features you don’t need and devices you don’t use. Turn off the cameras, microphones or location apps when you are not using them. If you don’t need a device, turn it off or use airplane mode.
Clear browser data
If you syncronize certain data and delete it on your Android device, for example, it will also be deleted on all other devices that are synced with it, as well as from your Google account. 1. Open the Chrome app on your personal Android smartphone or tablet . 2. Touch the three-point menu „Settings“. 3. Under “Advanced” tap on “Privacy” „Clear browser data“. 4.Select a period, for example “last hour” or “total time”. 5. Select the types of information you want to remove. 6. Tap “Clear Data”.
Delete individual elements
Instead of deleting entire categories of browser data, you can also select individual elements to be deleted: a page visited; a downloaded file; a saved password; “Cookies” on a website; an autofill entry.
If you want to delete data from one device without deleting it from all other synchronized devices, proceed as follows: Deactivate synchronization on the device; Delete the data from the device.
