I have a FB account. It is under a pseudonym, with the wrong age, and interest.
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Hey Fai Mao, you may be surprised what they can do to track who you really are. There’s a company called LexisNexis who has a system that collaborates with 2,000 digital firms who share your identity information anonymously.
So the network discovers what persona you are, and through algorithms and where you log into the network, they can pretty much figure out where you live if they want to.
What I do which probably helps a bit have my internet home page with all my favorite links residing on my PC. Then when I go somewhere I rarely need to use the search engine. I go straight to Ebay and buy something and the search engine won’t know.
This is a wonderful development on Apple’s part. It makes the Apple platform more attractive and that will put pressure on Facebook, Android, etc. to respect privacy more than they have.
The other factor is that Virtual Private Networks are available for only $20 a year now. So Facebook and Google feel the need to get into Amazon’s business — a plenty of high-end brick and motor and e-commerce.
Big battles going on among the Tech giants.
I am a former academic librarian. I am very aware of Lexis Nexis. If you never use your real name they have a hard time tracking you. My emails are not under my real name. no account is under my real name (Except for commercial accounts where I buy stuff online) so it is possible they could track that I like Diadora Shoes and drive a Mazda.
I also periodically purge databases of my name.
I am not quite an online ghost, but I’m close.