Privacy is not found on the internet

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With Facebook coming under increasing scrutiny over its privacy breaches, now is a good time to remind that some of the world’s most popular websites are tracking and recording your keystrokes, mouse movements, scrolling behaviors and the pages you visit. This puts your most sensitive information at risk.

A study conducted by Princeton University’s Web Transparency and Accountability Project discovered that popular sites like Microsoft, Adobe, WordPress, Godaddy, Spotify, Skype, Samsung and Rotten Tomatoes are using scripts that capture the data and send it to third parties. All told, 482 of the 50,000 most-viewed sites are using the session replay scripts. Among the information grabbed includes passwords, credit card information and medical information.

Researcher Steven Englehardt, a Ph.D. candidate at Princeton, told DailyMail.com, “Unlike typical analytics services that provide aggregate statistics, these scripts are intended for the recording and playback of individual browsing sessions, as if someone is looking over your shoulder… This may expose users to identity theft, online scams and other unwanted behavior.”

Google’s search engine records and saves everything you do. That’s why, if you look at a product on a retail website or use the search function to locate a product, ads for that or similar products follow you everywhere you go. In addition to recording your searches and your voice (if you use the voice search feature) it tracks and records your location.

Google’s location history, or timeline page, serves up a Google Map and allows you to select specific dates and times and see where you were. Its accuracy depends on whether you were signed into your Google account and carrying a phone or tablet at the time.

Bottom line, if you want privacy you’ll not find it on the internet. Best you can hope for is to use the internet to learn how to regain your privacy, and then drop off the grid.

I’ve compiled a number of tips and strategies to help you regain and retain your privacy in the age of the internet. If you’ve previously missed out on my Ultimate Privacy Guide, you can get it here.

Personal Liberty

Bob Livingston

American author and editor of The Bob Livingston Letter®, in circulation since 1969. Bob specializes in health issues such as nutritional supplements and natural alternatives, as well as issues of liberty, privacy and the preservation of medical freedom.