Privacy

May 24, 2018

Australia

I don’t know how the new EU privacy regulations will affect WordPress.com, but you should know that:

WordPress gets revenue from advertisements
Almost all of the tech giants track us whether we know it or not, whether we agree or not
Many of the biggest tech giants share this information with each other and with the ad networks
The ad networks draw together all of the information we provide freely – e.g. in Facebook, Twitter or on WordPress itself. They then combine this public information with tracking information obtained from other websites you visit [which are seeded with cookies and pixel tags etc], online purchases, games and geo location.
Geo location is most obvious on your phone, but can also be found on social media and ecommerce sites
All this information can create a profile of you and me that can be used to gain identifiable information.

The threat from online tracking is real. Just as you wouldn’t leave your front door open when you leave home, you need to take reasonable precautions when you’re on the internet.

As far as my blog is concerned, I do not have a newsletter, and I will never use the email address you provide to WordPress to contact you unless you specifically give me permission to do so. Unfortunately, I cannot guarantee that your information will remain safe if you comment on my blog. The best I can do is to offer some safety and privacy suggestions:

cancel geo location on your phone
cancel geo location on all the social media sites you visit
if possible, set your browser to delete all cookies when you end the session – i.e. when you close the browser
and finally, if you use internet banking, do not have any other websites open while you’re doing your internet banking. As soon as you exit internet banking, close the browser and then reopen it. It’s just safer for your money.

I would love to read your comments, but I will understand if you decide not to accept the WordPress terms and conditions.

cheers

Meeks