This is a move to stop data brokers fingerprinting its users.Īpple’s new Private Relay prevents ISPs and WiFi operators gathering DNS queries, which, it says, “can be used to fingerprint a user and build a history of their activity over time.” It also stops web servers “determining user location. Now it’s going a significant step further with Private Relay, essentially breaking the identity chain so no-one can combine your IP address and other identifiers with your browsing history, not even Apple. And it has added app tracking into the mix with iOS 14.5. When Apple talks about privacy as a fundamental human right, it’s this kind of data grazing that it has in mind.Īpple has been cracking down on cross-site tracking for years with its Intelligent Tracking Prevention. It’s a great way to manipulate you, to turn you into a buyer.
That’s why when you google something in one room, your partner sees an ad for that same product in their Facebook feed shortly afterward in another room. All of which inflates the value of my data to an advertiser.Īnd there are no lines. I know what someone with your characteristics is likely to buy, and so I push that to you, and measure when you transact. It draws data from multiple sources, tracking, correlating, cross-referencing behind the scenes. This concept of “fingerprinting” is the public internet at its worst. MORE FROM FORBES Why It's Time To Change Facebook Messenger Over Encryption Concerns By More broadly, unless you adjust your privacy settings and select apps and platforms that put privacy first, you can assume that you are being followed (digitally) everywhere you go, that everything you do is being watched. And right at the heart of this is tracking-identifying you as an individual by your digital fingerprint, and then targeting you with ads or manipulative messages based on an AI assessment of how you will respond.Ĭlearly, if you use a browser provided by an advertising company (Google), then what happens next is unsurprising.
The web is a vast network of interconnected trackers and data brokers, algorithmically measuring and manipulating your behavior.
It’s this business model which has rocketed Google (and Facebook) into the stratosphere and spawned the vast app industry.
Someone is buying you-or your data, to be more precise. If you’re not paying for the app, then it’s generating revenue some other way-put more simply, if you’re not buying the product, then you are the product. It’s this principle that should guide you when you download apps onto your phone.
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