Info@wiperts.com
How much is your info worth?
People are usually annoyed or shocked to learn that their personal data is worth a lot of money to a lot of people and is often being used without their knowledge. Even if you signed a use agreement with a lot of legal speak, you probably missed the part where they said “we get to use all of your data whenever we want to!” But if you think about it, it makes sense. If you’ve ever wondered how companies like Facebook, Instagram, google, Twitter, LinkedIn, and hundreds of other applications make money when you’re never charged a dime to use them—think “data.” Giving up your personal data is the price you pay to use all those applications for free. It’s true what your parents told you, nothing is ever free, and if it is, be suspicious! Even Amazon, which charges fees for Prime and gets a percentage of sales, sells your data and shopping habit information to third parties. They rake in the cash from all directions, which is why Jeff Bezos is one of the richest people in the world. In 2010 Jeff Bezos was number 43 on Forbes’ list, this year, in March of 2018; he knocked Bill Gates out of number one and is now the richest man in the world. Not bad for someone whose platform is selling close to 70 percent counterfeit products, according to many experts.
Another tech money maker, who is also in the top ten of the world’s wealthiest people, is Mark Zuckerberg. Shortly after there were major questions about what customer data the company was using and selling, Facebook’s stock went up instead of down. With all the heat being on the company to not sell customer posts, comments, emoji’s, private messages, images, and other information to third parties, they actually made more money instead of less. Why? Because more people and companies wanted to invest in them then ever before instead of backing off and distancing themselves from their ethically questionable practices. Facebook has a vast storehouse of information about everyone who has used their application. That information is recorded from the very first day you open your account right up to the last day you close it. If you decide to go private and quit Facebook, there’s always Instagram, which they also own, which also captures your posts, images, comments and shares and saves it in their database.
Most people do not want to quit social media, even after learning what their data is worth to these companies, many others do want to quit and do so successfully. When you stop to consider how much of your life is truly tied up online and social media, it becomes a big decision whether or not to erase some of your data and presence. You can lower your digital footprint and thus decrease the amount of information that is available about you in general. This takes some time and effort. However, if you’re uncomfortable about companies making money on your data, then you should take multiple actions to minimize the damage.
The route most people take is to remove some data, but not all of it. Using a search removal company to get rid of specific personal information is usually very helpful. This way you can leave some things that you enjoy using but you can get rid of other things that are bothering you. You can chose to just remove a name from the internet or remove an address from the internet. The good thing about data removal companies is that they can customize what you remove from the internet and what you let stay.
If you have questions about data removal, talk to the team at Wiperts.
