They’ve been selling your data for decades

It may seem like privacy has become a bigger issue in the digital age but privacy, or lack thereof, has been around for ages.

If you thought Facebook and their numerous breaches, or their overt selling of data to the likes of Cambridge Analytica, was bad – ha, you haven’t seen a thing! This stuff has been going on for a long long time.

The “Junk Mail” Men: Selling Your Data for over a Century [Saturday Evening Post] – “Like magic, seemingly, you scroll past an advertisement for the perfect product. Something you’ve been looking for (or dreaming of?) for as long as you can remember. But how did they — the big tech sorcerers — know?

Data, of course. Your age, interests, location, and browsing behavior are all fed into algorithms to present you with advertisements that align with your lifestyle. Ever since the internet became a who’s who of everyone, tech companies have been fine-tuning this practice, But predicting which products will most successfully part you from your money — targeted advertising — has been around for as long as the post office.”

If you haven’t done so recently, remember to check your credit reports at least once a year. The data isn’t necessarily being “sold” per se, but it’s very important and now is as good a time as any for a reminder to check them. You can do so at AnnualCreditReport.com.

If selling your data was scary, you may not want to read this next piece.

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