Simon Elvery and Ariel Bogle provide a great example of how your online searches can result in you receiving advertising you may not want showing up on your screen — especially if you share your computer or monitor with family members or others. Their article begins:
When I searched through the vast amount of data my phone and laptop shared in a week, there was one thing that really weirded me out: how my health information was being unexpectedly sent to multiple companies.
And it wasn’t just search engines sharing my health-related web browsing — I even found a Victorian Government website delivering data directly to two of the world’s biggest tech companies. And when I asked them about it, they re-wrote large chunks of their privacy policy overnight.
Here’s what happened
Earlier this month I did a little research into vasectomies. For, ahem, the obvious reason.
Sorry if this is a little TMI for you, but it provides a clear example of how something you think of as private can be scooped up by advertising companies.
Using my favourite privacy-focused search engine, DuckDuckGo, I did a few searches over the course of about an hour.
Read more on ABC (AU).