A recent report by Javelin Strategy and Research found that identity theft cost Americans $56 billion in 2020, with imposter scams accounting for 20% of online fraud. While most internet platforms have stringent data security measures in place to curb cyber fraud, they aren’t always fool-proof.
Your user information is available online as a result of your digital footprint — the traces of all your online activity. No matter how minimal you think your online presence is, some of your data is inevitably collected by various platforms. Many activities require you to give your personal information — your name, email, phone number, age, and gender — which tech companies then collect and use to tailor your online experience.
Additionally, there are numerous obscure data brokers online that collect your user information, package it, and supply it to tech companies for targeted advertising. Large-scale number crunching and analysis help advertisers target their desired demographics in a comprehensive way.
Thankfully, there are ways you can mitigate the adverse impacts of a lack of online privacy and minimize the amount of your personal information that brokers have access to.
The dangers of personal info being exposed online
A common type of online fraud is theft from your bank account using your credit card or account information. This is made worse by the fact that people feel more comfortable sharing their private information with certain industries — healthcare and financial services in particular — who might not always have the best data security measures in place.
Phishing, man-in-the-middle attacks, and backdoor entries are ways in which malicious parties try to access user data stored on individual and big-tech servers. Simply put, t ..
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