Cookies, data & your price

Make good choices, it’s one click away!

Let’s own it, we can make a difference if we care. If we care enough for ourselves, we respect our body & mind. So, we sleep, eat well, move & socialize. How often will you make the same bad choice over and over again when you know it puts you at risk?

The same idea holds true for sharing information online negligently. When you visit a website, so called (HTTP or browser) cookies are collected, which can store your log ins & other private information about you. As such cookies are good since they ensure that your browser functions properly, it identifies you, displays the page in your preferred language and keeps your chosen items in your cart by the page you are visiting.

So, there are no worries about them as long as they are kept safe.

When it comes to “third-party , persistent, marketing cookies” is where you should make an conscious choice. If you allow such to be selected, the gathered information about your profile, preference and location can be sold to other parties which can target you.

So, once prompted to give cookie consent, just try & adjust the default settings. Most websites will reduce the cookies to the bare minimum (functional cookies) but any way you will see for what purposes your data is collected and by whom.

Social engineering techniques like choice of specific color & button placement might trick you into agreeing to all again.

The price you pay if you agree to all cookies:

• The lesser evil: You end up buying more unnecessary things because your profile can be aggregated & you become more vulnerable for manipulation
• The greater evil: It can be in hands of people who don’t have your best interest in mind & sketchy sites can steal/abuse cookies to get your credit card & identity information

On this journey you’ll familiarize yourself with some tech topics. One at a time, there are so many benefits of knowing your way around the little traps!

Easy ways to change your digital footprint: start with your browser & search engines. Please find some well established inspiration is below.

Browsers:

• Firefox — specializes to deter third party cookies (Extensions: Privacy Badger, Facebook Container, etc)
• Opera — has a built in VPN, adblocker for Youtube
• Microsoft Edge - clear privacy terms (Extensions: Privacy Badger)

Search Engines:

• Duck Duck Go (Privacy oriented)
• Yippi (Deep web)
• many other …

Keep your cyber hygiene up!