Trust Issues
Find Out What Google and Facebook Know About You
How to do a data detox, in a zillion easy steps
Hackers obtained the Social Security numbers of more than 145 million Americans. Paid political chaos monkeys allegedly harvested data from at least 87 million Facebook profiles in an effort to influence the 2016 U.S. election, the Brexit vote, and possibly more. In a practice that could easily become discriminatory, police departments are mining social media profiles in the name of public safety.
These stories are all connected by a common denominator: data. Nearly everything we do online leaves a trail of data that is then combined and analyzed on servers across the globe in a kind of decentralized dossier of human behavior.
To many of us, that may sound abstract, or benign, or both. But is it?
To bring the issue out of the heady headlines, I tried to get a handle on how much of my own data was out there. This prompted just what you might expect: confusion, panic, and rage, followed by a strong urge to purge — to perform a data detox of my own.
Broadly speaking, my detox game is already on point. I’ve done the Master Cleanse juice detox (mercifully for my roommates, it was while they were out of town). I’ve been to sweat lodges. And…
