Bzzt Bzzt, oh no, not another scam caller. I bet you didn’t know that they get your information through sources like online purchases, warranty cards, or even just searching online for phone numbers. These all come from sources of digital information networking, also known as websites taking your information or your phone listening to you. All of these are violations of your privacy as an American, yet they’re not illegal because there isn’t an American right to guarantee privacy, which is why your privacy is exploited so frequently. This is why I think that data collection shouldn’t be legal on the internet.

How do websites and apps take your information?
While browsing the internet, I’m sure you’ve been asked to “please accept cookies.” You blindly accepted because you didn’t know what cookies even do. This is one of the methods they use to keep your information even after you leave the website; others are pixel, IP address, or browser fingerprinting. All of these are common forms of data collection that websites use for “bettering your browsing experience.” However, you usually don’t know the extent to which they take your information or that they have a file on all of your information that you’ve ever used. Even going into incognito mode or clearing your search history, the information is still already listed in their database. This is because once you accept their terms, which they intend for you not to read, your information is as good as there’s, and since you’ve accepted their terms, you usually cannot make it, so you don’t want to accept their terms anymore. This is why whenever you’ve said something or had a conversation about something and then seen something about it, it comes from data collection. Although this is rare, it’s still possible. The more common one is searching for something and having an add-on about it pop up. That’s because it collected the data from your search history and then put it into an algorithm, allowing them to advertise things to you.

What do they do with this information?
The majority of websites have a lock on them, which means they keep the information on their website, although websites without it can share your information with other websites. This is called 3rd party tracking. Usually, they use this information to show you targeted ads and allow advertisers to target you based on your interests and online activities. Although there is a more malicious side to this coin, which is scamming and building a profile on you without your consent, which isn’t needed since you don’t have a right to privacy under the Constitution or any of the amendments, Since we don’t have a right to privacy, they can use this information to scam, misinform, or capitalize off of you. Since they can do all of these things, the file that gets built on you is then sold to scammers, who use it to try and take your social security number, personal information, blackmail, or credit card information. This affects nearly 70 million Americans every year, with 40 billion dollars lost in total from just scam calls alone.

How do I prevent this from happening to me?
There are numerous ways to keep yourself from being scammed and having your information tracked, but the easiest ones are virtual private networks (VPNs), secure browsers, adblockers, spam call prevention, and educating yourself on internet safety. An example of a VPN is Nord VPN, which keeps your information safe from being tracked, although you do have to pay a monthly fee to have their services. Secure browsers like Opera GX or DuckDuckGo are browsers that prevent websites from stealing your information, tracking you, or making a file on you. This makes using search engines a lot safer. Ad blockers such as Surf Shark or Total Add Blocker make it so you don’t see ads while on the internet. For this, such as spam or scam calls, you can use Aura or Robokiller to get rid of scammers permanently and prevent them from affecting you further. This information is very useful on the internet. Although common sense is even more useful, never click on links or give out your password, and most importantly, never purposefully download malware or go to unsafe websites on purpose.

Conclusion
Information theft or misuse is very common on the internet. That’s why it’s important to be educated on this so your information doesn’t get taken and misused. Since privacy isn’t guaranteed on the internet, you have to use proper protection when browsing the internet. Maybe in the future, stealing information will be illegal, but as of right now, it’s important to be educated on these topics to prevent your information from being stolen and used maliciously.