World News

Protecting Digital Privacy

By Micah Moskowitz ‘28 in Fall 2025

Big companies, like Google and Apple, sell your data to advertisers so they can get you to buy more stuff, but did you know that you can unknowingly send your location whenever you send a photo? That is what's called metadata, and if you are trying to keep things private, you need to be aware of the data you share and who is sharing your data without your permission. To start, browsers like Google Chrome actively spy on you to show you better ads. If you don’t believe me, just go to adssettings.google.com, and you’ll see information about you such as your age, gender, relationship status, education, and so on. If you are under 18, Google won’t show you this information, and it will claim it doesn’t sell any of your data. However, according to the Electronic Frontier Foundation, Google will group you into a category of people with similar demographics and interests, then sell your category to advertisers. Of course, it's not just Google, social media companies like Snapchat are even more intrusive. Going into Settings > Lifestyle & Interests, you’ll find a list of preferences Snapchat curated to show you better ads, whether or not you’re under 18. If this makes you feel uncomfortable or spied on, no worries! It’s easier to stop than companies want you to think. With social media companies, turning off settings that consent you to data harvesting can go a long way. A more active solution is to switch browsers. My personal recommendation is Firefox; however Brave is another good suggestion, as it looks very similar to Chrome. Even if you don’t care about your privacy, you still have the option to never see ads again! I heavily recommend downloading an ad blocker. One of the best ad blockers, uBlock Origin, is completely free. If you’re on Chrome, you’ll have to download uBlock Origin Lite, as Google recently made it harder for advanced ad blockers to function. One of the biggest things you can do is to be conscious about how your data is being used, and to make informed decisions that put your privacy first. I heavily encourage everyone to do more research on online privacy, for I have barely scratched the surface on an issue that has been systematically downplayed by tech companies. You don’t need to be a tech genius to own your data.