How Are You Being Profiled?

How are you being profiled? How are you Being profiled? – TotesNeworthy advice, and what does that mean?

Are you being profiled? In the modern age of CCTV, social media, and big brother – yes, you are being profiled. Everyone is. It is becoming more and more challenging to keep your privacy; you’re always being watched, listened to, and studied.

How are you being profiled?

You’re being profiled all day every day. With inventions like Alexa and Siri, we are making it easier and more accessible for people to keep tabs on us.

Profiling is the act of obtaining as much information about a person as possible. Their likes dislike. Their political leanings. Where they are, what they’re talking about. All of this information is used to make you more predictable. The end goal of this is to be able to guess, with accuracy, what you’re going to do next, what you’re going to buy next, mostly.

How is this Data collected?

Your data can be collected in a myriad of ways; you’re being listened to and, to a much lesser extent, watched, way more than you might think.

Before you get too upset, you should know, you did agree to most of this when you bought that iPhone, that Alexa, that Google home. You agreed, maybe without realizing, to let them listen in on you. After all, that’s how Alexa works aren’t it. You ask her a question she searches the internet and relays the answer to you verbally. Except she keeps the information, you give her. If you, for example, say, “Hey Alexa, where can I buy a hairdryer near me” not only will Alexa answer, she’ll store that information in a file next to your name. Well, not her’ personally. Amazons server room will save it.

Have you ever noticed that suggestions for discounted items you were just thinking about buying turn up in your Amazon suggested? It’s not a coincidence, your phone or your Alexa device will hear you mention these things and start sending you advertisements.

It’s not even always that complicated; on Facebook, you type out what you’re thinking and post pictures of yourself with geo-tags. You let the world know where you are at all times.

When you post how you’re feeling on Facebook, like a picture of a car, share a meme, and partake in political discourse, Facebook stores that data to build a profile on you. They then sell that profile, your profile, on to a third party. This isn’t a conspiracy theory. This happens, Facebook has been forced to testify to Congress about such things.

It’s not only private companies who try to accumulate as much data about you as they can to build your profile. Your government does it too. If you make a post on Facebook or twitter talking about how much you hate the president, make empty threats because you’re mad, there is a very real chance the FBI will turn up at your door.

Your political leanings very well be made public; what you might not expect is that these posts you make now could determine a job you do or don’t get in the future. You never know who has access to your data; it can be sold and exchange dozens of times with no real trace.

How is your data used:

Your data is used by different people for different things. I’ll elaborate.

The Government:

The government uses your profile to determine if you’re going to be a good citizen or not. Are you too strongly leaning conservative? Too liberal? Do they think you’re too radical in your party affiliation, and you could be an issue? This profile can be used to determine if you do or don’t get a government job later in life.

Companies:

Companies like Facebook, Amazon, and Google take your data to build a profile to sell it. There isn’t somebody at google listening to your phone calls hoping to hear something interesting, so they can quickly write it down. It’s all stored automatically.

Your profile is then sold onto a third party, like Amazon, for example, so it can be used to predict your future. Not in a creepy psychic way, in a “what are you going to purchase next way.”

Keep all of this in mind when you go on your next Facebook rant, or you’re telling private information within earshot of your home device or your phone.

TotesNewsworthy says, You never know who’s listening.

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