Protect Your Data Privacy: A How To Guide

Your personal data can include:

• Passwords: This could be passwords to your computer, email account, social media account, bank account, or other important websites or apps.
• Contact information: Basic personal information like your home address, email address, or phone number.
• Personal information: Your social security number, birthdate, health information, or legal status.
• Social information: Your physical location in the past or present, activities, friends and family, school, employer.
• Metadata: "Invisible" data that is attached to devices you use or artifacts you upload/download. This can include things like: 

  • Browser/OS data - Information about what device's operating system is being used. This may also include why type and version of a browser. This information is passively gathered when accessing websites.  Open this site to see what your browser already knows about you, right now: https://webkay.robinlinus.com/

  • IP address - the Internet address of your device. This can be used to determine a user's location. It can also be used to trace back to a specific device when accessing a web site or sending an email.

  • Timestamp, location, file size, editing history of a photo on social media

  • Geolocation data - data about where you are. This can include the embedded metadata of a photo, where you accessed a service on a mobile browser, or where your cell phone is geographically located when making a call or sending/receiving a text message.

How could your data be misused or abused? Some examples include:

• Search results may be significantly limited or artificially "customized" based on your prior searches, your physical location, or other data about you that has been collected and stored by a search engine or browser.
• Your email account may be spammed with unwanted marketing material, or you may receive phishing emails or other types of scam attempts.
• Someone pretending to be you could access your existing accounts, or open new ones without your knowledge.
• Surveillance by law enforcement including determining your immigration status.
• Surveillance during litigation proceedings.