What Actually is Privacy in the Digital Age?

In the Digital Age, there are many different ways of being exposed to data brokers. Some of these ways include social media, streaming applications, and ALPRs. But what can we actually do about these things? Some social media platforms people find irresistible. It takes so much more effort to go around ALPRs. For some people, it seems like there's no use in trying. That's what I want to talk about in this post.

What is collecting my data?

As I mentioned before, there are many different methods of collecting data on consumers. One of those mentioned was social media. It's well known that all social media applications have algorithms. These algorithms collect data on you to better personalize your feed. Say, for example, you really like horses. The algorithm won't know that you like horses yet, so it will feed you everything popular. As you interact with posts and provide data to them, the algorithms will find out what you like. Eventually, nearly every single post will be about horses. They know that you like horses and that eventually gives them a loyal customer. What gives them even more money, though, is that data. They can sell that data to data brokers. Those data brokers will collect data from many different sources to know more about you individually.

Another source is streaming applications. If you go to Netflix and choose a movie or TV show to watch, the application is going to log that information and store it to suggest content you may like as well. If you keep watching horror movies, they're going to keep feeding you horror movies. That, too, will be sold to data brokers to create a profile.

Finally, ALPRs are already being used to create a database to find specifically you. As you drive past them, they are logging who, where, and when. Police departments are then able to search with specific filters to find you and see what you've been up to. They say it's for increasing safety.

Surveillance is never safety.
Automated license plate readers (ALPR) have become a staple of policing across the United States. From the smallest town to the largest city, we are all constantly being watched, tracked, and cataloged. ALPRs scan millions of plates daily giving police enormous unchecked power that challenges our constitutional rights.
- DeFlock

What can I easily do?

Well, unfortunately, you may have to switch up your lifestyle a bit. Personally, I don't use practically any social media platforms anymore. I use Discord to talk to my friends, but that will change soon. I occasionally watch YouTube, but I watch it through FreeTube, a privacy-focused application. Other than that, I really try to not be on social media. I would also recommend turning off notifications on most of your mobile applications, as they're simply trying to get your attention to waste more hours of your day.

I also don't use any streaming services. I don't find them necessary, as it's another subscription that I don't want to waste my money on. I also dislike the approach Netflix took and everyone else adopted where only one home can use an account. It's just an annoying tactic to receive more money for the same bad product.

Oh, boy. ALPRs. They're truly wonderful privacy violators. Luckily, DeFlock recently added to their website a way of creating routes without going anywhere near a mapped ALPR. This is using DontGetFlocked.com's FlockHopper. If that works for you, perfect! If you want to get more involved, you can communicate with others about the problems that ALPRs pose to cities and towns. You can also join in on DeFlock's National Week of Action. They're helping people get the resources they need to do something for their communities.