MORE FROM FORBES Why It's Time To Change Facebook Messenger Over Encryption Concerns By null

More broadly, unless you adjust your privacy settings and select apps and platforms that put privacy first, you can assume that you are being followed (digitally) everywhere you go, that everything you do is being watched. And right at the heart of this is tracking-identifying you as an individual by your digital fingerprint, and then targeting you with ads or manipulative messages based on an AI assessment of how you will respond.Ĭlearly, if you use a browser provided by an advertising company (Google), then what happens next is unsurprising. The web is a vast network of interconnected trackers and data brokers, algorithmically measuring and manipulating your behavior. It’s this business model which has rocketed Google (and Facebook) into the stratosphere and spawned the vast app industry. Someone is buying you-or your data, to be more precise.

If you’re not paying for the app, then it’s generating revenue some other way-put more simply, if you’re not buying the product, then you are the product. It’s this principle that should guide you when you download apps onto your phone.

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