News hardware The GAFAMs siphon off your data, we explain everything to you!
If you think your personal data is kept safe by the company that collected it, you are wrong. Between the massive collection of information and the resale of it, the GAFAMs siphon off your private life.
What do we collect on the Internet?
Internet companies have a huge interest in massively collecting your data. In the batch we find more or less sensitive personal information : we can mention your name, your addresses, your date of birth, your email, your photos, your location, your telephone, your social security number and especially your IP address.
There are also behavioral data. This is your online activity and your interactions on the site. All your purchases on the Internet are recorded to know exactly who pleases you. Thanks to this, it is possible to personalize your experience and offer the ideal products according to your tastes. We can integrate the attitude data that are the result of customer satisfaction. It is thus possible to know the time spent on an article and if the act of purchase is more or less far according to the price and the type of article. A merchant can, for example, know your budget without you even having purchased on his site.
Finally, the data that allows you to know who you are is called “use”. Sites will create a consumer profile with your sitewide interactionsyour SMS exchanges with them and emails.
It should be understood that the sites see everything you see on the screen. When you tap on a link that takes you somewhere else, the sites know.
Internet sites are full of tricks to collect your data as discreetly as possible. The efficiency and quality of the data are the main argument at the time of collection. Incomplete data is of little interest. The collection happens during all your connection time, even when you are inactive on a site. For this, the sites use tracers, which as their name suggests, they follow you and observe your every move online.
The second method is even trickier, as it requires your consent. When an application or a site asks for access to your device, you give the key to your home. For example, an application requests access to your photo gallery. The company can then go to your library and analyze the metadata of your images (location information, date, device used, etc.). You may also be asked to access your location. Thinking the app is only going to use it once, you say yes. Obviously, you are granting unlimited access.
Who stalks you the most?
We suspect that some companies have made the collection of information a specialty. Antivirus
McAfee
has also made a list of the companies that siphon your information the most. Unsurprisingly, this is mainly GAFAM. There are six companies:
- Google : this is number 1 in the collection of personal data. The group has made a business out of it by selling customer information to other companies. No matter where you are on the internet, Google is always there.
- Apple : often considered the good student in data collection, the Cupertino company is not free from flaws. Apple harvests data within iOS to target advertising. The App Store is also used to track you down to personalize your experience as much as possible.
- Facebook : this is the second king of targeted advertising. The social network collects your phone numbers, photo metadata and even your private messages. The goal is to sell this windfall of information to advertisers.
- Amazon : bad student also in the massive collection of data. Amazon recently admitted to recovering user names, credit card numbers, phone numbers, passwords and even social security numbers.
- Microsoft : second less bad pupil of GAFAM, Microsoft collects to improve its products. Your searches are collected for the purpose of improving Windows service.
- Twitter : the social network does not directly collect a mass of information. Twitter goes through apps in its own galaxy.
The best way to protect yourself as much as possible is to look carefully before clicking on a pop-up “accepted to give access”. It is obviously impossible to read the general conditions of use, which warn that your data is sold. The only solution is to be vigilant and to give temporary access or only when the service is in active use.
