HOW TO ESCAPE THE ONLINE SPIES
WHETHER YOU’RE TWEETING, SHOPPING OR JUST BROWSING, INTERNET COMPANIES ARE MONITORING YOU.
Nobody likes being spied on. When you’re innocently browsing the web, it’s deeply unpleasant to think
that faceless technology corporations are monitoring and recording your every move.
While such data collection is legal, that doesn’t mean it’s all right. There are plenty of things you might
prefer to keep to yourself, such as your income, your sexuality, your political views or your membership of the
Yoko Ono fanclub.
While you might console yourself with the knowledge that all of this information is mostly used for targeting ads, that might not be the case for much longer. The internet giants are building up ever more detailed user profiles – and finding new ways to exploit that information.
Even if you’ve nothing to hide, therefore, it may be wise to minimise your exposure to online tracking. Here’s how Google spy on you – and how to protect your privacy.
While you might console yourself with the knowledge that all of this information is mostly used for targeting ads, that might not be the case for much longer. The internet giants are building up ever more detailed user profiles – and finding new ways to exploit that information.
Even if you’ve nothing to hide, therefore, it may be wise to minimise your exposure to online tracking. Here’s how Google spy on you – and how to protect your privacy.
GOOGLE
Most of us use Google services every day, and as a result the web giant knows a huge amount about our
movements and interests. You can find out everything it’s learned about you at myaccount.google.com. Your
data is all set out in an impressively forthright way; the only problem is, there’s so much information to work
through that it can be bewildering to navigate.
One section that’s worth your attention is “Manage your Google activity”. Here you’ll find Google’s activity controls, which let you disable various types of data collection.
For example, you can tell Google not to log your Chrome browsing history and activity, to stop tracking your location and to desist from keeping records of any voice commands you might issue. Turning these features off can make Google services less smart, but you might consider that a price worth paying. For a closer look at the information Google’s been collecting on you lately, click on “My activity”. This brings up a timeline showing all of your searches, webpage visits, Android app activity and so forth. Seeing your digital life laid bare like this can be pretty unnerving: if there’s something you’d prefer Google to forget, simply click on the menu icon to its right and delete.
If you want to thoroughly inspect everything Google knows about you, you can even download a comprehensive archive of personal information by clicking on “Control your content” > “Download your data”. Be warned, though, this archive can be huge: the default settings include all the emails in your Gmail account, and any videos you may have uploaded to YouTube.
If you want to limit the information you share with Google in the future, the easiest way is simply to use it less. For example, try the privacy-focused search engine at duckduckgo.com, and use an alternative browser such as Firefox.
One section that’s worth your attention is “Manage your Google activity”. Here you’ll find Google’s activity controls, which let you disable various types of data collection.
For example, you can tell Google not to log your Chrome browsing history and activity, to stop tracking your location and to desist from keeping records of any voice commands you might issue. Turning these features off can make Google services less smart, but you might consider that a price worth paying. For a closer look at the information Google’s been collecting on you lately, click on “My activity”. This brings up a timeline showing all of your searches, webpage visits, Android app activity and so forth. Seeing your digital life laid bare like this can be pretty unnerving: if there’s something you’d prefer Google to forget, simply click on the menu icon to its right and delete.
If you want to thoroughly inspect everything Google knows about you, you can even download a comprehensive archive of personal information by clicking on “Control your content” > “Download your data”. Be warned, though, this archive can be huge: the default settings include all the emails in your Gmail account, and any videos you may have uploaded to YouTube.
If you want to limit the information you share with Google in the future, the easiest way is simply to use it less. For example, try the privacy-focused search engine at duckduckgo.com, and use an alternative browser such as Firefox.
Fonte: https://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/13/
how-to-get-privacy-digital-life-data-monitoring-gathering-amazon-facebook-google (editado).
Acesso em: 10 de novembro de 2017.
Segundo o texto, as informações que o usuário gera ao navegar pela internet podem servir para fins outros
que não apenas publicitários. A empresa Google, por exemplo, oferece recursos que permitem ao usuário
evitar a espionagem excessiva. Abaixo, marque a alternativa em que constam as orientações sobre como
evitar o recolhimento de informações pelo Google, de acordo com o texto: