One of the most useful and yet often evil things about surfing on the Internet is the amount of data that can be collected on a person. Their habits, history, preferences — all of these factors can be tracked and applied in different ways to make you a target, whether it be a target of advertisers or a target of hackers.
According to the Anonymizer website:
It is estimated that 90% of all computers are infected with some form of spyware that may track keystrokes, allowing criminals to learn passwords and bank account numbers—essentially giving them access to anything and everything on your computer.
None of us ever really believe identity theft will happen to us but that is precisely what happened to over 10 million people last year alone. To say that we are at risk is an understatement. There are elite groups of cyber criminals forming in the far corners of the globe targeting consumers and businesses online.
This is staggering information. There are advantages and disadvantages:
- Advantage: They don’t get your data
- Disadvantage: Some websites will not work properly without your data
- Advantage: Your history is yours to keep or erase
- Disadvantage: Some of the nice features and convenience that cookies and IP tracking offer are gone
- Advantage: They don’t get your data
Okay, so it was technically a tie, but we count the top and bottom one twice. Protect yourself. It’s cheap!