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I was shocked to see this most of websites had good amount of information regarding me.

I

Imelda Byrd

Lurker
Howdy Members,

So I am pro privacy centric users and I use web apps and skim through privacy policy just ot make sure that nothing extra is being recorded about me. I was shocked to find out that some of the websites quoted in this article https://www.purevpn.com/blog/creepy-websites-that-know-everything-about-you/ had good amount of information regarding me. Specially
Family Tree Now,
Data Selfie (the case is different about data selfie as you install it and give the permission to record the data and based on their machine learning they predict this information is kept with Facebook of the user).
and
Predictive World (this is some what similar to Data Selfie. This websites uses data to predict you on Big 5 model it also ask to link Facebook so that it can access the data)

Also, go through the other websites so that you should check and request them to delete the data.
 
There's some good information there, but one needs to analyze their own, specific practices before getting too concerned.

Its ranking of Google as the #1 worst entity regarding privacy is pretty deceiving. For example, much of their bullet points don't apply to me at all. And those that do only have data I've chosen to give them. There are no surprises, at least for me.

They should've spent more time--like weeks!--running down all the covert things facebook does, or did, while their clueless users were completely oblivious. At least with Google, they're pretty upfront about what they do and how you can control it. Facebook has gotten away with egregious, covert privacy breaches for years and years.

Anyway, it's a good reminder for us all that our online lives may not be as private as we think they are, and that we should take the time occasionally to check up on things like privacy settings.
 
It's amazing how much the interwebz know about me. When I enter one of those sites and they tell me, "You put on a little weight, Steven?" I know it's time to be concerned about my privacy.
 
I'm a bit less tolerant of Google thasn some here. Everyone knows that their business model is to collect data about you which they use for selling adverts (i.e. the advertiser pays Google to post ads to people more likely to respond to them). But they are not always upfront about what their settings do. For example many people were surprised that "pausing" location history does not stop Google tracking your location, just stops one way that they do that (but it does stop you seeing it) - you need to "pause" app and web activity as well, since otherwise they record where you were when you used an app or visited a website. That was in the small print if you looked deeply enough through their settings, but most won't. And I get unnecessary or even misleading nags from some Google apps to give them access to data they don't need in order to perform their functions (e.g. Google Play Services errors whenever I make a call, and recently even when just using the Contacts app, because there are a couple of irrelevant permissions I've denied it, or Navigation telling me to turn on Location when it is on - they mean turn on the wireless location, which allows them to collect more data). And I wonder whether everyone who turns Assistant on knows how many of the controls they've previously set will be overturnedl by that one action? So yes, I am wary of Google (actually I'm wary of any and all corporations).

But yes, the article was far too shallow with Facebook. Their model is not simply to track what you do when using Facebook: they put a lot of effort into tracking what people do when they are not using Facebook, even when logged out of Facebook. If the author didn't know that they've not even done 30 seconds of research. And Facebook sell access to the data itself, not just charge others for its use (Google's business model).

I've no opinion on most of the others as I've never heard of them. But you should assume that everyone on the web is trying to collect information about you.
 
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