It’s been a whirlwind: Black Friday. Cyber Monday. Giving Tuesday.
Over just the past week alone, you’ve already had plenty of chances to buy or donate, online and offline. (And if you’re like me, you still haven’t started holiday shopping in earnest!)
While this time of year is great for retailers, it’s terrible for your online data privacy.
Why? Because every ad you click, every product you browse, and every purchase or donation you make leaves a trail of your data behind.
Retailers and marketers collect that data, analyze it, store it in their databases, combine it with other data, enriching profiles on you and every other visitor to their websites and stores. They often share or sell that data to other partners -- without your knowledge or permission. Those businesses then sell your data to other businesses. And on and on it goes.
So what does that mean for you?
Well, so far this year, more than 280 million people have had their data exposed in nearly 1300 publicly reported leaks or breaches. The more businesses that have your data, the more likely that you’ll be a victim of one of these breaches. Breaches can lead to phishing attempts and identity theft.
If that weren’t bad enough, when more businesses have your data you also get bombarded with more spam calls, emails, and texts from companies you never signed up with.
So what starts as an innocent holiday purchase can have lots of downstream impacts on your personal data privacy. But there is something you can do about it.
When you subscribe to Confidently, we help you clean up your data trail. We tell hundreds of businesses to stop selling your data and, where possible, to delete your data entirely. We help you stop the spread of your personal data, to give you control over which businesses should -- or should not -- have access to it.
So while you’re shopping for friends and family this holiday season, do yourself a favor and give yourself the gift of online data privacy: Sign up with Confidently!