I want to introduce you to five people, people who want to know about you. These aren’t five people who want to know you, not your friends (in real life or online), not people who care what you have to say, people who want to build a dossier.

The first person is Fun Freddy. Freddy is out there learning what he can about people because he can. While he might use the information for nefarious purposes, his motivation is the thrill of the hunt. He’s the kind of guy who takes your major and first name and figures out which dorm you live in; wait a minute, I did that once to a poor confused EE major.

Sellin’ Sally on the other hand, has more mercenary motivations. Her job is to advertise products, and she wants to know the best way to get you to buy. Are you the kind of person she can most likely persuade to buy her designer (or knock-off) handbag, a new gadget, or childcare book? She wants to know your current interests, your location, and whatever other information will complete the sale, so she can get a cut.

Next is Political Polly. Polly is a good friend of Sally, but rather than profit, she wants power. Rather than manipulating you to buy a product, she wants to "earn" your vote, your activism, or, if you seem hopelessly opposed, your silence. Polly takes your demographic information and portrays herself in the way that is most likely to appeal to you. If you are a discontent twenty-something, Polly will focus on how she is different; if you’re a more seasoned citizen, her experience getting things done will be her predominant message.

While Polly wanted power, Big "Brother" Benjamin wants to protect the power he already has. While he has some legitimate concerns, like terrorism, he sometimes snoops around to find people of different opinions.

Finally, there is Shady Sam. Sam is the kind of person who wants to use information with no respect to the law. Sam might be a stalker, a scammer, an identity thief, or worse. Sam goes phishing for financial information. He watches your Twitter account to see that you just bought a new car but you’re flying out for vacation in a week.

Freddy, Sally, Polly, Benjamin, and Sam have been around for ages. They are not new to the digital age, although the internet gives them access to the information they want more easily. This morning I read a quote of someone saying "Privacy is dead people. I’m sorry." While privacy has certainly changed, it isn’t dead. Here are five small steps you can take to protect your privacy.

1. Pay attention to privacy policies, here’s ours.
2. Duck it. Not only is DuckDuckGo’s privacy impressive, I find the search results and features more useful than Google.
3. Check your cookies. Cookies are just information that a server stores in your web browser that it can access again. Many cookies are useful for things like settings and accounts. Other cookies (particularly by advertisers) are for tracking your behavior. Take a moment and see what cookies you currently have and what settings you use to control them.
4. Pay with cash. Besides being common financial advice, this can be a reminder that privacy isn’t limited to what you do online.
5. Step away from your technology. Privacy isn’t just an online issue, but online activity is more easily tracked than many other activities. So go ride a bike, fly a kite, or read a book instead of surfing the web for entertainment.

Related:

Michael recently wrote about privacy.