It’s no secret that the internet is filled to the brim with people’s personal and sensitive information. Most are happy to post a great deal about their life, giving away information which they’d never offer directly to a stranger. Of course, it should be able to be this way, and being able to use the internet securely is a dream still far in the future. Sometimes, the data you store on the web is used for bad. But, in other cases, there could actually be a good deal of benefit when it comes to the way businesses use your information. Thankfully, most of this is simply to sell more to customers.
Cookies
Most people are aware that the way the browse the web is always under the careful and watchful eyes of advertising and marketing companies. Using browser cookies which store information about your searches, companies like Google are able to show you adverts which are tailored to what you’re already looking for. Although this may seem creepy, it’s actually incredibly secure. The advertising companies themselves don’t get access to any of your data, instead using information stored on your local computer to figure out what needs to be shown. This limits the chances of the information falling into the wrong hands by a huge degree.
Credit Checks
A lot of people get worried about the idea of having checks performed in their credit, as this sort of procedure can negatively impact your finances. A soft check, though, doesn’t do anything to your money, and will often go completely unnoticed by the owner of the score. That is until you start to get emails and texts about a preapproved credit card here and life insurance policies there. Being able to perform a check like this can give a financial company a good idea of your success and issues with money, enabling them to accurately assume whether or not you will be able to use their products.
Employment
When you have someone’s name and address, finding them on the Internet is a very easy process. Most people have an account on Facebook, for example, and the search functionality on a site like this is very easy to use. A very common time where this can cause issues is when you’re going for a job. If the business you’re trying to work for doesn’t like what they see on your wall, you could ruin your chances of working for them, and it really doesn’t take very much to do it. It’s best to avoid anything you wouldn’t want people to see unless your account is set to private.
Hopefully, this post will give you a much clearer understanding of how your online data is used by the companies and organizations around you. It can be creepy to think about what other people may know about you, simply as the result of your time online. Of course, though, the uses for this data are usually fairly innocent, and you don’t really have much to worry about.
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