Online Presence

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      Online presence is something that we should all be aware of.  What most people don't understand is how much the government knows about you simply from your Facebook profile.  I hadn't given my online footprint much thought until recently.  My footprint is most likely medium sized.  I have enough accounts with my real name that it just makes sense.   I have a Facebook, Instagram, Twitter, and a Snapchat account.  Realistically, I am only regularly active on Instagram and Snapchat.  I believe that I do a good job of keeping them clean of media that should not be public.  A visitor could easily find out where I am from, what school I go to, what fraternity I am in, etc.  This is only from my profile.
       After reading Richard Stokes' article on the ad-tech industry, I realize how much of our private lives are not so private at all.  The market is less about the consumer and more about extracting personal information about people.  I do not blame Stokes for leaving this industry.  The best way we can combat this is to understand what data they are sharing and not sharing on the internet.  Once something is put out there, there is no taking it back.  It has become an erie situation.  People are reporting that even simply talking to someone about a certain thing will cause an ad for that exact thing to show up on their phone or computer.  Americans must start taking this seriously and being less careless about what personal information they are putting out on the internet.

https://www.fastcompany.com/90359992/an-ad-tech-pioneer-on-where-our-data-economy-went-wrong-and-how-to-fix-it

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