Organizations harvest our digital footprint to build highly detailed shadow profiles that will be used to target ads|mikemacmarketing|CC BY 2.0
Every time we browse, shop, or post online on a smartphone, companies harvest our digital footprint to build highly detailed shadow profiles that will be used to target ads. Experts share a few tips to reduce it.
Organizations stitch together a person’s IP address, device identifiers, search queries, and purchase history to track behavioral patterns. Social media posts further expose our location, age range, and social circles.
Experts note that even lingering on a product page is noted. Furthermore, marketing agencies and data brokers routinely buy, sell, and trade these profiles to run targeted psychological advertising campaigns.
As a result, we face an adpocalypse on every digital front. Security experts recommend a few steps to reduce data flow drastically. It begins with altering device settings.
- Security experts recommend auditing app permissions, turning off personalized advertisements, and deleting or deactivating your device’s advertising ID.
- We can also choose secure browsers like Brave and use private search engines like DuckDuckGo to block non-essential cookies to limit browser tracking.
- Routing internet traffic through a Virtual Private Network (VPN) also masks the true IP address.
Finally, using a secondary junk email address for casual sign-ups and an automated data-removal service can help keep our sensitive details out of commercial broker databases.