When a person goes online, they create traces. Some are more obvious, liking a post on Facebook or reviewing a product in their name, but most traces occur without notice. They are the results of mundane, everyday activities that seem so unremarkable, nothing important comes of them. The routine weather app check. The mindless scroll through the news station. The logged minutes of a morning run. In the moment, it doesn’t feel like anything of significance is being created.
But it is. Slowly but surely, all of these actions cultivate a surprisingly comprehensive picture of a person’s life, routines, where they go, who they speak to, and what matters to them. What is terrifying is that people aren’t reckless; instead, people do so much automatically through innocuous behaviors that no one even thinks twice about engaging in.
Every App Knows Where You Are
Location services are ubiquitous. Apps inquire whether they can access a user’s location, the user hits “yes” without a second thought, and they forget. However, that location data doesn’t vanish into the void; instead, it is recorded somewhere, and a picture develops over time mapping where that cell phone has been.
Consider weather apps. It’s understandable that they would want to know your location to give accurate forecasts; when was the last time someone checked if it was going to rain and it told them “yes,” but it was for someone else’s city? Weather apps have access to every time someone checks to see if it will rain; it knows exactly where they are and at what frequency. Now, take the average phone; how many other apps have access to the same information? The answer is plenty; dozens upon dozens of apps operate on location access. Some of those apps even access constantly in the background without the user knowing.
A fitness app is a prime example of how easy this access becomes intrusive. Someone logs their morning runs through an app; fine, nice and healthy. However, that fitness app now knows where someone lives since each run begins and ends in the same vicinity. That app knows when someone is on vacation because there is inactivity for two weeks. That app documents someone’s entire routine based solely on their consistent patterns. What appears to be a health application becomes an in-depth surveillance dossier of someone’s daily movements.
Pictures Say More Than You Know
Photos provide far more context than what appears on the screen. Each photo comes with metadata embedded into the file: when it was taken down to the minute, where it was taken (often), what device was used to take it. That metadata follows it into social media postings or text messages.
Even when social media outlets strip metadata from photos, the background offers enough information for people to piece together various parts. Although it’s argued that people should know better and try not to include personal details in their backgrounds (addresses on mail or calendars), most people will snap a neutral picture of what’s going on, at home by their kitchen, or what’s important to them, but then unknowingly include personal detail (doctor’s appointments from a calendar or their reflection in a window).
From time stamps alone, people can create patterns over time. A photo at 7 am every weekday and at 10 am on weekends means someone just announced their schedule to everyone paying attention. A photo from the same vantage point over time means people become accustomed to where someone exists most frequently. Even what someone photographs the most, from their pets to hobbies to their meals, paints a perfect picture that may be more accurate than anything someone would profess to someone’s face.
Your Web History Never Goes Away
Web histories are compounded through searching: what people search for on Google; what pages they look for; how long they remain on a website; internet service providers log every minute detail from popularity to duration. Browsers save that data locally; websites track visitors; advertisers create profiles based on where people go on the internet with the idea that certain ads will be better suited for those individuals.
The act of searching reveals far more than anyone wants to admit: health worries, relationship troubles, financial crises, job searches, all become recorded through search history available for anyone keen enough to look over time. Patterns emerge; situations develop: if someone searches “normal marital fights” one week and then “divorce lawyers” the following week, they’ve basically written a book in Google queries.
Incognito mode offers protection that many don’t realize isn’t effective: while a browser won’t save history, an internet provider still tracks what’s going on, data is there for anyone privy enough to listen in along with understanding how private investigators use the internet to track you through those legally accessible systems that most wouldn’t even consider.
Social Media Patterns Mean Everything
It’s one thing for people to see what they post online actively; however, another entirely different situation occurs when traces emerge passively, when a post occurs, when someone is tagged, likability and comment frequency, people and pages/groups they follow, this reveals as much as what someone intentionally posts because patterns emerge based on relationships, interests, daily routines and what’s important versus what someone says is important.
If someone likes one gym’s posts daily at 6 am or consistently comments on a restaurant page daily, it’s inferred that’s where they work out and eat. If they’re part of support groups related to health conditions or political issues, those are points worth noting since people may not cite them in conversation but find them worthy enough to follow behind closed doors.
Friend lists say everything about someone else’s life as well: professional connections; relatives; partners; social communities; even private accounts shed some light into who the person once connected with, those mutual friends provide context without looking at any person’s content.
Apps Are Documenting Everything You Do
Apps track how often they’re opened and for how long. There resides access within phones that link certain histories together while backups occur through clouds that no one ever thinks about. Despite thinking these pieces are saved locally, they’re also saved remotely.
If someone uses a dating app every night at 9 pm, that creates a pattern. If someone uses headspace or meditation apps regularly, that implies stress or mental illness concerns. Whether it’s a gaming app or reading app or music app, these features become interesting patterns that suggest something more than what someone professes in conversation.
Banking apps note spending patterns; food delivery apps recognize buying cycles; transit apps note travel habits. These have specific discussions attached but fail to consider even one-third of tracking over a single person’s device, not to mention all the additional apps in play since the average person has dozens upon dozens.
Wi-Fi Connections Give You Away
Wi-Fi settings consistently ping devices looking for networks they joined before; thus, devices broadcast their names which creates traces as people move from familiar place to place, grocery stores, airports, coffee shops, all of these locations are capable of being pinpointed.
However, even without logging on, they can be traced by networks they’re looking for; if a phone is looking for “Home-WiFi” and “Work-WiFi,” it’s clear where this person lives and works. If a person seeks out certain fitness studios or cafes’ networks, they’re regularly in those spaces. Networks record this data all too often with easy access from multiple legal means.
Email Patterns Tell Their Own Story
Email, an inherently digital means of communication, also creates records beyond what people say: metadata exists with who people talk to and how often as well as time stamps and locations from which messages are sent and received, even encrypted systems protecting the contents still allow metadata into the greater discussion.
This reveals who must be spoken to based on patterns relative to content no matter how mundane or noted in passing as well as changes relative to focus, that daily lunch email reveals it’s either a spouse or work-related connection, conversations held with certain individuals at specific times show how people must be dedicated, which changes over time demonstrate changes relative to relationships and respective life stages.
Every Purchase Gets Logged
Digital transactions, credit cards, payment processors, create records of where purchases happen when and to whom. Banks have records; payment companies have records; stores have records, many different organizations log purchases even with similar transactions.
However, records include where purchases occur, the priority, and general volume of spending inform equity opportunities. Subscriptions reveal ongoing desires; reoccurring payments suggest patterns/habits/concerns that may tell more truth than individuals would admit otherwise.
The Big Picture Nobody Wants To Admit
Those seemingly innocent traces create digital footprints far larger than expected; it’s not just uncompiled information here or there; it’s detailed mapping throughout one’s life encompassing specific digital traces relative to habits that seem meaningless otherwise, even the mundane.
Then they’re compiled over time; they’re historical created documents with retrospective value, revealing change over time about developed situations across too many platforms creating such overlap among many companies that getting rid of such information proves absolutely impossible.
This understanding facilitates more appropriate action relative to fostering certain uncertain insights however real privacy for anyone in today’s world with digital nuances likely proves impossible anyway.
