The Internet has become an integral part of our life. Technology has made our life more comfortable and now it isn’t easy to imagine a life without it. From searching for information to booking a cab, all are one click away.

The services like Gmail, Android, Instagram are all free to use. But the fact is it takes millions to develop and maintain them. Thousands of people work in these companies who also need payment. So who is paying for it? Advertisers pay them to show us the most relevant ads. There is a quote,

If you are not paying for the product, you are the product.

Our data and attention have become the product for these companies. The websites like Facebook, Twitter, YouTube etc. are designed to make them addictive to use. By having our attention, they can sell the ads to advertisers based on our data which they are already collecting.

Google, Amazon and many other companies are constantly tracking us. They record the websites we visit, the things we search and build a profile of our interest. Here is an example of how powerful tracking technology is right now. We all can track the driver when we book a cab or order food online. It is done using the GPS device in smartphones. Imagine someone with malicious intent try to do the same with us. The possibilities are endless. With the surveillance device called the smartphone always with us, privacy has become a joke.

The oligopoly of Google, Facebook and Amazon has become so pervasive that it is now difficult to disconnect from it. Our privacy is the price we pay for the upgradation in lifestyle. The things may seem harmless now. But with so much power in the hands of few, things can go haywire anytime. Many tech leaders have also voiced the same opinion.

But until some regulations are enforced, we need to be cautious. Use the applications and services which respects your privacy. The apps like Telegram, proton mail, brave browser, Duckduckgo are some of them. At least be aware of the privacy policy of the service you are using.