Companies generate massive profits from people’s information, with experts describing user data as “the new oil”.
Some of these companies are household names but many are unknown, with one analyst comparing the relationship between companies and users as “David vs Goliath”.
Is there anything you can do about it, or are you resigned to having companies know all about you – and make money on it?
How companies collect data
Sam Jones, founder of Gener8, a company that helps users make money from their own data online, told our Money team how companies farmed data on users.
“Companies collect data about people through a range of methods, many of which operate quietly in the background as we go about our daily lives,” he said.
“Most of us have heard of ‘cookies’, but perhaps many of us don’t realise that a ‘cookie’ is really another word for a tracker.
“And when you click ‘accept’ on a cookie banner, you are not just allowing the website you are on to track you, but often you’re allowing hundreds of different companies who are hidden in the website terms and conditions.”
Other methods of data collection include (but are not limited to):
• Pixels: Tiny images embedded on websites and emails that track activity;
• Device fingerprinting: Sites gather device-specific information (for example, screen size, browser type, font type) to create a unique way to identify it;
• And mobile apps: Many include third-party software that sends data to other companies about users – this can be location or usage habits for example.
There are also companies known as data brokers that compile information about users that can be sold to advertisers, insurers or even political groups.
“In the end, users are frequently handing over significant amounts of data without fully realising the scale of what’s being collected, how it’s being used, or who it’s being shared with,” Jones told Money.
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What data do companies collect?
Experts say collected data largely falls into two categories:
• Personal data: Information about users, such as name, email, phone number and location;
• Behavioural data: Information about how users interact with websites, which ones they visit, what they search for, how they search, where they click and how long they spend on each part of the site.
Combined, these can be used to predict interests, habits and even life events.
Why do companies collect data?
Advertising is one of the main – and most profitable – reasons companies collect data.
If companies understand users better, they’re better placed to sell them products (or help others sell them products).
We’ve already mentioned data brokers, which sell the user information itself to companies that are hoping to reach people for a variety of reasons. Another big use is research, because knowing more about users lets companies spot trends (or problems) and inform decision-making.
But Oliver Devane, senior security researcher at McAfee, explained to Money that information gathering wasn’t all sinister.
“One reason why is basically to improve the user experience as well,” Devane said. He gave the example of a video-sharing platform tailoring its experience to a football fan by showing them videos of the sport and their club.
Tilman Harmeling, a data protection expert at Userscentrics, added that some data collection companies undertook was a legal requirement.
What can you do about it?
It can seem daunting, knowing that information about you is out on the internet, and our experts have tips to help – but it’s not easy.
Money was repeatedly told that the best first step was to be aware of where your data is on the internet.
Various online tools will, for a price, scrape through the internet to see which companies have a user’s information and remove it for them.
But to do this yourself (for free), you need to conduct a personal digital audit. This can be done by:
• Go through your emails and see what you’re signed up to;
• And search your name and phone number on various search engines to see where you pop up.
Once you’ve identified where your information exists, you can go about scrubbing it. Sites that may have your data will have a privacy policy (they all do), and Devane says to look out for sections that refer to users’ rights or data.
From here, you can often find how to request a deletion, or can contact the company to do so.
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With more recent privacy laws, you can also submit legal requests to take down your data – for example, Google’s Results About You tool.
Forgotten accounts can also be a hub of a user’s data on the internet, so don’t forget to purge them, deleting any unused profiles.
Similarly, be cautious about who you share your data with from the off and be choosy about app permissions on your mobile – delete old and unused apps because fewer apps mean fewer avenues of data collection.
Meanwhile, on social media pages, it’s always worth being aware of what you’re sharing and what your privacy settings are.
There are also technical ways to protect your data online, according to Devane. He said people could use protection software such as VPNs.
Our experts generally recommended that people do a clean-up regularly, but all acknowledge the difficulty of this and how the issue is stacked against users.
