XSReviews

If keeping your sensitive data as private as possible is very important to you, you’ll be pleased to hear that there are a number of things you can do to keep it better protected. 

Facebook Knows Your Interests

Facebook has famously got into hot water for sharing data, and this hasn’t altered much to date, although the social media giant has probably learned a thing or two from its Cambridge Analytica catastrophe. 

A lot of the information it stores is provided readily by users; however, the social media site also stores details you may not be aware of, which are used to send you targeted ads. While some people find this useful, there are probably many others who find it a little too Big Brother for their liking. 

Be Careful What You Tweet

Twitter is one of the biggest and most influential social media giants, with plenty of celebrity users, some of whom can’t seem to live without it. Twitter has even famously been used by a recent US President to provide updates and opinions. If you are a regular Tweeter yourself, however, you may be taken aback to discover that Twitter’s privacy policy is rather flexible. 

In fact, the social media titan collects everything from your personal contact details to your site usage, your browsing history, and even info on whom you are interacting with – to name just some of the many potentially sensitive details it stores. 

Do You Shop Online? Amazon knows all about you

While Amazon may have its detractors, it also serves millions of shoppers around the world, and many people have signed up for its popular subscription services, most notably Amazon Prime. What they may not be aware of, however, is just how much information Amazon stores: for instance, it may have access to your driving license, your GPS location, your favourite search terms, and your browsing history. 

As for the privacy policy, it’s perhaps the shortest of any provided by the tech giants, which probably explains why the retailer can collect so much data. That said, Amazon will give you the chance to opt out of providing your data to third parties. 

For rigorous security go with Apple

Apple is the recommended tech company for anyone who is really concerned about data privacy, as it has been found to have the most secure policy. This means that the company holds very little personal data on its users in comparison to others – perhaps because they generate so much money from selling their products that they don’t feel a need to sell customer data to third parties. 

As a rule, they will only use your data for the purposes of improving the products and services they can provide for you. This makes them the best tech company by far in terms of data protection. 

Final thoughts

As you can see, choosing your tech giant according to its privacy policy is one useful way to try and ensure your data isn’t sold on to third parties.

Another solution involves considering a tool to remove your personal information from the internet. Companies such as Incogni offer an automated opt-out service that removes your data from the brokers who already have access to it – a number that could range from between ten to several hundred.

Requesting to opt out from each of these data brokers yourself would take hundreds of hours of your time and potentially cause you a great deal of stress. An automated opt-out service, that includes repeat checks and progress reports removes the effort and hassle from the process and increases your protection from serious cyber threats.