5 personal details that websites collect without your knowledge

You must be aware of these details that websites collect without your consent.

| Published: Tuesday, May 15, 2018, 18:11 [IST]

The internet is what everyone turns to when they need to look up something or to find an address, nowadays, people turn to it when they find their minds idle and using it has become second nature with people turning to Google to look for subjects that spark their interest or products that they may have an interest in buying. The internet has a countless number of websites to keep you from not getting bored and this is what website owners and other businesses through ad agencies intend to take advantage of.

5 personal details that websites collect without your knowledge

The major details that website owners have access to and which they tend to take advantage of is the following:

Location

Every computer in the world has an IP address which is unique to that computer.

Website owners usually have tracking scripts installed which help them determine where the visitors to their website is from. They usually do this in order to tailor the content for the visitors. The IP address is more than sufficient information to learn about your internet service provider, your geographic coordinates and the name of the town you live in.

Demographics and System Information

If you happen to be logged into your Google account while you are browsing, Google evaluates your search patterns against its database to try and predict your age and gender.

The demographic data is provided to website owners by Google Analytics in order to provide them with the chance to better tailor the ads which will appeal to you the most.

Web sites aren't good at just predicting who and what you are. Websites can learn details about you like the type of browser that you use, your operating system, what kind of screen resolution you have, and also the version of flash that you are using.

Personal information

Almost every site that you have to log in to nowadays initially when you sign up allows you to do so through Facebook or Google+, while this seems like a quicker way to do things, you are inadvertently providing personal information to websites, your friends, your interests, the things you like, what you dislike, your preference when it comes to travel locations, your hobbies etc. Information like this is a treasure trove for advertisers whose aim is to find things which need to compel you to buy things

Address, phone number, and Email.

If you are signing up for a new app or service, one of the basic requirements that you have to fulfil is to enter details like your phone number and your mailing address, the appeal of an exciting app and its cool features often overpowers the voice of reason which might suggest to you the dangers of giving away your private details to someone unknown, you should still think twice about giving away your information to websites or apps that cannot be trusted.

Even if you sign up for a site through a social account or even your Google account, the businesses get access to your data, while never signing up for anything ever again might not be the best thing to do, you can try to not give away your intimate details to sites that aren't trustworthy or just stick to big brands and businesses that you know can be trusted,

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Preferences

Ever wondered why an ad for the new phone cover or shirt that you were looking up on the internet keeps popping up whenever you visit a website? The simple answer is cookies. Cookies are a small text file that is placed on your hard disk whenever you visit a website, information about your browser and such are saved so that websites can identify you more easily the next time you go in there.

Your browsing history is available to website owners via third-party cookies which are geared towards collecting as much information about you as they can like your hobbies and interests.