While some of this data, and its collection, may appear harmless to some, what happens behind the scenes is a real source of concern as the data collection is only the first step in a long and opaque process. Ad tech companies combine this information together and create an assumed picture of you, akin to a “secret identity”. Your personal information can indeed be gathered, cross-referenced and processed to profile you by companies you’ve never heard of. Using the data they collect about you, these companies can infer even more information about your interests, habits, goals, and fears, with variable accuracy.

These profiles are like secret identities that reveal parts of your that even your most intimate friends might not be aware of. Doubtful? Through submitting data subject access requests (DSARs), we obtained some of our own profiles and the results were frightening. The data we received was the equivalent of our entire browsing history and contained detailed characteristics both inferred from this browsing history and obtained from other tracking companies.

Pieced together from incomplete data and using marketing algorithms, this data forms an uncanny picture of your, one that you have may not have voluntarily revealed, a digital shadow over which you have very little practical control.

Privacy International. (2021, January 28). The companies in control of our secret identities. https://privacyinternational.org/long-read/4398/companies-control-our-secret-identities