[jkubicek]

I think about it this way: Apple collects data about me in the Apple Stocks app so that it can serve relevant ads in the Apple News app.

This is fine and expected, I’m using an Apple app, I expect it to use my behavior to influence other Apple apps.

Candy Crush is blabbing all about my behavior to Facebook, which then uses that data to inform my ads on different and wholly unrelated applications.

This is creepy and intrusive.

Another way to put it, if I don’t want Apple to know anything about me it’s clear what I need to do: don’t use Apple devices, services or websites.

If I don’t want Facebook to know anything about me, it’s not at all clear what products or services I need to avoid. I need to setup a pihole or something similar, and even then I’m not confident I’m blocking enough stuff, or not otherwise leaking my identity.

[quitit]

The real world example is: when you’re in a retail store, that store can see which products you’re looking at and approach you accordingly. That’s not “tracking”, nor is presenting ads that are based on contextual information: such as how DuckDuckGo presents ads based on the search terms.

Tracking is so much more than people seem realise. From a simple facebook like/share button existing on a website or Google analytics script operating invisibly in the background, the user is followed around the web to identify their interests - that data is also combined with offline sources. Facebook/Google apps and services each also provide a wealth of complementary data. Advertisers then can bid directly on very specific groups of people, with that ad campaign being able to be metricised through to the individual sale.

Furthermore the privacy policies for Facebook and Google were both rewritten under the guise of simplicity - stating a laundry list services and metrics. This disguises which apps are gathering which metrics. The new privacy labelling requirements under the apple’s app store provide some surprising insights. (Like how gmail gathers your purchase history and collects this as part of your profile.)

You’ll see apologists on here downplay the seriousness of this, or try to build a false equivalence to regular marketing activities.

However take a moment to recognise that companies like Google privately hold more information on you than you’d be comfortable with even your elected officials having access to - all without a hint of regulation to your personal privacy.