Here are some things any web site can find out about the visitor:
Data points I can know about you:
- Your IP address
- Your physical location
- Your computer name
- Your operating system
- Your browser
- Your screen size
- Your device (if mobile)
- Potentially your phone number (if mobile)
- How you got to my site (from search? From social? Referral? Typing the address directly in?)
Data points Google can tell me about you
- What language you speak (or surf in)
- Your location
- Your interests
- Your education level
- Your age
- Your gender
There are a number of things you can to protect yourself and to better control what information you share and with whom it gets shared.
The first and most obvious thing is to set privacy for social media sites. You should also set security on your mobile device(s) so that no one can access it if they find it. One of the biggest things you can do to protect your privacy is turn off all the convenient features on your mobile device like location awareness. You do lose the convenience but you do gain a degree of privacy – though keep in mind that as long as your cell phone is on, you are trackable.
Consumer reports has a list of 66 things you can do to protect your privacy. Try several of these to begin protecting your privacy.
One of the conundrums we face is who to let in to our “circle” and who to keep out. When I got my new phone with fingerprint unlocking technology, I was excited. But my son pointed out that Google now has my fingerprint.
As a business / web site owner, it is important to recognize that your visitors all want and expect some level of privacy. But we all want to understand the details of WHO is visiting the site, WHY they are there and WHAT they want to accomplish. Google, with its Analtyics tool, hides demographic and other data from you if there is so little of it that you could begin to identify actual people. Their idea if to give you broad information to understand the demographic groups that come to your site. But wow, wouldn’t it be cool to know that right now, Jim Adams, aged 39, with a wife, Naomi and two children in 1st and 3rd grade just clicked on a link in your web site – oh and by the way his phone number is ***. That info sounds great to business owners until they realize they don’t want the sites they visit to know that information about them.
If you are struggling to determine how much data to collect, how to interpret it, or how to organize the data, give us a call. We’d be glad to help. Reach Brian at 303-268-2245 ext. 4