The Top Sites That Violate User Privacy
Personal data privacy has become the hot topic over recent years thanks to more and more sites and platforms harvesting our data and selling it to third parties companies, sometimes to gather raw amounts of information, and other times to personalise advertisements. Many of these platforms have become more predatory than ever when it comes to both our personal and financial data, and it’s never been as important as it is right now to try and protect our data as much as possible.
Not all sites and services are the same when it comes to privacy, however, and some are clearly worse than others when it comes not just to collecting data, but the kind of information that they collect and what they do with it. Here we will look at the common sites that are generally regarded as the worst for privacy.
Facebook is currently one of the world’s most popular social media platforms, but the company itself has come under fire countless times for the way in which it harvests its users’ data. If one were to take the time and read through the terms and conditions of the company, as well as its privacy policy, it doesn’t take long to realise that they don’t always have the user’s best interests at heart.
Whatever is uploaded to a profile is saved in a database for that user, ranging from the pictures they take, the messages they send, the kinds of ads they click on, and much more. The problem is compounded further due to the fact that Facebook has been the victim of numerous data leaks and breaches over the years, where hundreds of millions of users have had their data exposed.
TikTok
While Facebook is by no means clean, TikTok is arguably the very worst privacy platform in the world right now. It just takes one look at the kind of data they collect through their app to know that they are not really up to any good.
In fact, when a user downloads and installs the app, they consent to the platform collecting data about the model of their phone, their contacts, their precise GPS location, and perhaps worst of all: they are able to collect keystroke information. This means that the app technically has the ability to log anything the user types, including their passwords.
Instagram has a slightly more robust privacy policy than its parent Facebook, but not by much. They retain the ability to withhold all data uploaded to the app, which includes videos, pictures, location data, metadata, and more. While Facebook has seen a massive decline in its overall userbase in recent years, Instagram has only gotten more popular, and it won’t be long before it becomes even more predatory.
Google has the best privacy policy of all the entries listed here, but that doesn’t mean that they are in the clear. Because Google runs both Android and Chrome, the most popular mobile operating system and browser respectively, they are able to collect monumental amounts of information on their users, whether it’s about their work or their favourite sites, like https://mobilebetting.net.nz. They can see where they go on the web, track their location within a few metres, retain all searches, scan through both their emails and Google Drive content, among others.