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What reasons are there for being concerned about companies like google and meta etc collecting data and tracking me? (lemmy.world)

submitted 1 year ago by Mr_Dr_Oink@lemmy.world to c/asklemmy@lemmy.world

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Please understandnim asking this question from a genuine place. I dont want the quora answer, i want the tech savvy, security expert minds of my fellow lemmings. If thats ok?

What happens to this data? What can/do they do with it? and why are so many people concerned about google tracking them?

Do i as an average user need to be concerned?

If so, What sorts of things can i do to avoid being tracked? Preferably without too much comprimise.

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[–] charonn0@startrek.website 4 points 1 year ago

It's not for your personal privacy, or to spare you personal embarrassment. But rather because large-scale demographic data collection is dangerous.

The Nazis used such collections to locate Jews. America used such collections to locate Japanese-Americans. The Rwanda genocide was facilitated by tribal affiliation being printed on ID cards. In none of these cases were the data collected for the nefarious purposes it was eventually used for.

Information is a form of knowledge, knowledge is power, and power in the wrong hands is dangerous.