Here is a question for you: who do you think knows more about you: your husband or partner, your parents or Google? Well, most people would answer “spouse or partner” or “parents.” After all, your parents have known you all your life, and the person you live with every day knows everything about you, including the good and the bad.
Surprisingly, the answer is Google. Yes, Google, that unique search engine that can take you to any website on the planet in the blink of an eye. 3.5 billion searches are performed every day, which is equivalent to 1.2 trillion every year, which is not surprising since more than 92% of all internet searches are done on Google. And Google records them all, including yours.
Why does Google want your data?
The amount of data saved by Google is simply amazing. Google’s search index has over 100,000,000 GB of data, so they don’t really need more. But they want all the data, including yours, because that’s how they make money. And they make a lot of money: The company was recently valued at $346 billion. They sell all of your data to people search sites and advertisers so they can identify consumers in a highly targeted way.
Google itself doesn’t have any data about you, instead it has little Google bots that roam the internet looking for anything with your name, email, address, smartphone, and just about everything else, and then post or sell it. If you want to see what they have on you, just google your name and see what comes up. It’s impressive and eye-catching, and most people don’t even know it exists.
Here’s why that’s a problem
Google has all of this information about you and it may affect your privacy and security. They sell it to people-tracing sites and anyone can access that data, including cybercriminals. Once they have it, they can use whatever is there to dig deep and get financial or other private information about you, including your Social Security number. The Next Step: Identity Theft: A fast-growing criminal enterprise that generates more than $56 billion a year.
It can start with a fraudulent phone call or a phishing email. The caller ID will be spoofed to look like an official call from the IRS or Amazon, for example. So respond and if you’re not aware of what’s going on, you’ll end up revealing a lot more information than you ever thought. Another concern is that the information Google collects is inaccurate, so there can be many false claims about you on the internet.
Deletion of your personal data from Google
Before searching Google for a link to click that will delete your personal data, it is best to tell you that Google does not have its own data about you. You simply search the internet to find something with your name on it, then post it and sell it. To remove your personal information from Google, you must remove all of your information from people search sites and other websites. Which is easier said than done.
Here’s why: There are over 100 people search sites, including Intelius, Whitepages, and US Search, each of which has its own methods of removing your unauthorized personal information and allowing you to opt out. This is a tedious and time consuming project that can take weeks, but it is something that needs to be done. An alternative is to hire someone to do it for you, but due to the number of locations and the work involved, this can be quite expensive.
Make sure you get a disposable email service, like Blur, EmailOnDeck, and E4ward, and use it every time you opt out of a people search site. Otherwise, you will find your inbox full of spam or you will end up revealing your email identity to possible cyber scammers.
Your next step is to remove all personal and sensitive information from social networking sites, such as Facebook, Instagram, and Twitter, among others. All your private and confidential posts must be deleted or they will show up on people search pages. Each social media platform has privacy features that you must turn on, and each has its own data deletion requirements.
Another key step is to remove all information from any websites you own or blogs you post. Your “about us” page will contain a lot of personal information about you and you want to delete it. Also, it is probably out of date, and if it is, you can ask Google to remove the data.
In fact, Google has different data and information removal policies, and as long as the data you request to be removed meets their criteria, they should be willing to do it for you. These policies include information that could lead to identity theft or financial harm, fake pornography, sensitive financial or medical information, and explicit photos that are posted without your permission.
If there is information about you on other websites, such as former employers, for example, you can ask the owners of those websites to remove your information. The more personal information you can remove from the Internet, the less information Google can collect about you and sell it to people’s search sites, and no one knows where it will end up.
Bottom line: Use the tactics and tips above to remove as much of your personal data from Google as possible. It will help protect your privacy and prevent you from becoming a victim of identity theft.
Categories: How to
Source: newstars.edu.vn