Companies Want your Data – Here’s How they Get It

A recent survey indicated only 28 percent of the world uses tools to protect their privacy online.

If you don’t fall into that 28 percent, we want to know why. It may be because you feel you don’t do anything illegal online and therefore don’t have anything to hide.

The reality is everyone has something private to protect – your personal data. Every time you browse an online shopping site, share something via social media, or simply use Google Search, a tiny piece of your personal data can be tracked. What’s even more scary, that data is bought and sold on a daily basis. Google and Facebook use the info you “voluntarily” provide to serve up ads.

Other companies want in on this as well. In fact, Golden Frog recently received an email from Experian Hitwise, a digital marketing company, asking us if we’d like to enter “a data supplier relationship” with them. We included the email below so you can see what type of personal data interests them and what we stand for.

They actually thought we’d be open to providing data on our users! Obviously, their sales guy hasn’t read our vision paper about preserving a free and open Internet. Nor did he take the time to understand what we stand for.

Needless to say, we declined. But, the lesson here is that hundreds of companies out there are salivating for your personal information. That’s something to consider when you say you aren’t concerned about online privacy and don’t have anything to hide.