Today more than ever, it has become of vital importance to ensure your online privacy and keep your personal data out of the hands of big tech firms masscurading as friendly social media platforms to sell your information to companies seeking to directly market products to individuals based on their age, sex, race, location, financial transactions and even health.
Basically any information you willingly share with friends and loved ones or simply with followers is scooped up by carefully designed algorithms and placed at the hands of global conglomerates destined to sell you their products based on the information they have about you.
It doesn't end with only the online curating of the information you willingly give, Oh no, any app that you have given access or permission to your microphone or camera is capable of being used without your knowledge. This includes recording conversations so an algorithmic bot can sieve through to find any search terms or references which may be used to direct advertisement in your direct. Not all apps abuse this privilege but the large ones always seem to do so.
We have all heard the stories and some may have also experienced the following scenario.
You are out with a friend for coffee or maybe just on the phone discussing a topic, lets say for argument sake, you are discussing future holiday plans, proposed destination, possible hotel and whether you plan on taking a plane, sailing on a boat or train trip, then later that day you are using one of your trusted social media sites and coincidentally you start to receive ads about hotels, travel and specifically your planned destination, well that ain't no coincidence.
Now just imagine the above scenario only this time you are discussing your private health matters with a relative, you then start receiving adverts about treatments and medication for you condition right, well this is a well known secret that big tech has been keeping from it's users for a long time and one of their main sources of revenue.
They create the algorithms and bots to track your use and harvest your personal information, images and conversations to package for sale to the highest bidder, this is almost always done without your knowledge or consent, it is unethical, immoral, dishonest, creepy and an invasion of your privacy which should never be acceptable, that is why they keep it a secret.
Another example of this is cookies, websites function perfectly fine without cooking so any website that uses them is in some way invading your privacy and harvesting your data, you need to decide if accessing these sites is worth forfeiting your privacy for... Nobody knows how this information may be used against you in the future..
How can you prevent this from happening?
Well the logical answer is to stop using these platforms and websites, it's that plain and simple, if you value your privacy you would seek alternatives that are not invasive and value your privacy, for some though these platforms have become a necessary part of everyday life and communications and unfortunately yes they have been designed that way to keep you hooked and coming back to spend as much time as possible using their services, the more you do, the more they learn about you.
With every new introduction of product or service they reel you in, send you constant notifications, emails and text messages to bring you back time and time again like a gambling addict hooked on instant interactions.
For those that find it impossible to unwind from these platforms their are methods you can use to limit any off site data harvesting, which I will explain briefly and for others their is alternative media platforms that do not harvest data, have cookies or act in an invasive manner, I will discuss these next.
One method to limit off line data harvesting is to ensure that you turn off permission for each of these apps to access your microphone or camera when not being used specifically for this purpose, when you do grant permission always remember to revoke it again when you stop using it, they are counting on you to forget.....
However the best way of dealing with these creepy platforms is to uninstall, delete and stop using them, send them a clear message that what they are doing is not cool, it is not OK to stalk and invade somebodies privacy no matter for what reason, stalking is a criminal offense so why would you let a tech company do this to you, would you allow your dentist to follow you around and watch what you buy and eat because he say's that he is looking out for your dental health interests while selling that information to the next business for profit, “NO” you would not. You would probably report him right..
lets talk about some alternatives, blockchain alternatives that value your privacy and you can actually earn a little cryptocurrency for using them, allowing you to profit for your time, while securing your privacy and only sharing what data you feel like sharing.
My four big tech alternatives are all blockchain social sites that can be used by anyone and provide you with options to cut out your use of big tech harvesting companies like, Facebook, Twiiter, Youtube and Google. “And you are never bombarded with adverts”.
I use Torum daily as a privacy based blockchain facebook alternative, you can find interesting groups known as clans, new users known as Landers and businesses that all use this platform daily, you will also start earning XTM an Ethereum based ERC-20 token for completing daily, weekly, monthly and once off missions, others may also give you gifts for posting or sharing interesting content and their are big expansions happening with the upcoming Torum Finance integration and launch of NFTs, You will receive 75 XTM free to get you started by using this link
https://www.torum.com/signup?referral_code=qjax01
Next is my daily alternative to twitter, noise.cash where you can send and receive noises, re-noise others posts and get tipped in bitcoin cash for your efforts, you can find groups of similar noises called chambers
Odysee is my youtube alternative and it really exploded with new video's lately, you can also find blogs and other content, music etc and the good part is you will also earning LBC coins just for watching video's, liking, following and sharing content LBC are currently value at roughly $0.25 each, why would you waste your time watching the same video's on youtube when you can earn crypto on Odysee from doing it, you can use the following link to get you started and start earning your first LBC today.
https://odysee.com/$/invite/@CryptechViews:1
Presearch is my google alternative, you can do all your research, it has everything you will find at google without the ads or invasion and you will earn PRE-tokens for doing so, remember the old saying time is money, well it literally is if you switch to these platforms and begin earning from day one.
https://presearch.org/signup?rid=2031498
If learning about cryptocurrencies and technology by reading articles is of interest you may find the following links useful, you can also earn crypto for reading, writing and sharing articles on these platforms.
Make a decision to change your mindset today and begin taking back your privacy and earn cryptocurrencies in the process, If you feel that this may be a lot to change in one day simply bookmark this article and come back to it each day until you have achieved your goals of becoming privacy and crypto independent. “ The future you will thank you for it”.
I hope you enjoyed the article, if you did consider sharing it with your friends, family and loved ones, heck pass it on to your neighbours, give it to your students or post a link on your social media, help others find a reason to make that move and join the privacy and crypto revolution, by helping others you know secure their futures Today.....
Find other useful articles on my blogs and many other articles by interesting content creators
https://read.cash/@Read.Cash/our-bitcoin-cash-affiliate-program-5311f58f
https://www.publish0x.com/?a=openZv27e7
THIS IS IMPORTANT BECAUSE YOUR ACCOUNT IS SAFE AND SECURE✔