It all seems like a typical day typing away at our laptops and scrolling on our smartphones until cybersecurity hits us with its importance. This happens when we hear about someone’s credit card info getting hijacked from an online purchase or if a friend gets into our Facebook account and sees some things that they’re not supposed to see. This invasion of privacy would never have been possible if those things were not up on the internet. A couple of decades ago, cybersecurity was only an issue with the military and the intelligence. Now it is a personal headache for anyone who uses the internet, and that’s everyone.

Things You Wish Your Smartphone Did Not Know

If you have ever read the privacy practices on your smartphone, you know that your phone is tracking a lot of your personal data. If you have ever used your credit card on your phone, sometimes you can log back in and a lot of the information, except the code on the back, pulls up. To use MAPS or other GPS apps, your phone tracks your current location and where you are going. Literally, almost everything you do on your smartphone is monitored by your smartphone. If this gives you chills, check out this Huffington Post article to find out what other things your smartphone knows about you.

Hello Alexa, Who Are You Sharing My Data With?

Have you read the articles where users of Alexa have said they heard her laugh? Why is Alexa laughing? Probably because she has a lot of incriminating evidence against you. If you have an Echo or another audio assisted device, these devices are programmed to record your vocal responses so that it can help you with your query. This means it is on all the time listening to your conversations until you give it an explicit command. Should you be worried about this? Well, sort of, unless you don’t mind what happens in the privacy of your home to be shared with a third party.Wired.com gives more information and understanding as to why these devices have to be constantly recording in order to be effective at what they do.

Apps Are Invading Your Privacy!

Have you ever noticed how you could research a topic in Google on your phone and then somehow when you log in to your Facebook app, all of a sudden the ads are about whatever it was that you just Googled? Is this merely just a coincidence? Unfortunately, no. Apps track much of your information when you use them. They don’t just monitor your usage while you are using the app, but they are running in the background collecting data to give to third party vendors so that they can cater ads to your tastes. As Scientific American explains, you agreed for these apps to share your data with third parties when you signed up to use them.

While apps and devices like the Echo make our lives simpler, we are giving up a significant portion of our privacy by utilizing these devices and apps. There is no telling what kind of information is being gathered and what that information could be used for in the future. OPTOFF.