Managing Employee Privacy Protection in the Age of Big Tech and Personal Data

Precautions, tips, and resources you can share with your employees today

Taking charge of our digital privacy and security has never been more imperative than it is right now. Not just for ourselves, but for our employees and our organizations as well. Practicing good digital hygiene and putting proactive measures in place have become essential in minimizing data exposure and risk. Fortunately, there are easy steps employees can take to protect themselves. For a roundup of resources that can be easily shared across your organization, check out: How to Take Charge of Your Digital Privacy.

In our recent webinar, Help Employees Manage Privacy Against Google, Facebook and Other Big Tech Companies, we outlined how companies, including Facebook and Google, mine your data — and how IDX Privacy can help to stop them in their tracks. Listen to the on-demand webinar now to learn how to easily remove your personal information from data broker sites and to hear tips for establishing better online privacy habits.

A quick peek into location tracking

Did you know that Google and Amazon are spying on you and your employees? Personal information is bought, sold, and stolen every day. Consumers find devices, such as Amazon Echo and Google Home, helpful and fun — true, you can listen to Somewhere Over the Rainbow on demand. But, what’s happening behind the scenes? These devices are snooping on consumers and gathering as much information on their activities as possible. The devices record what you say and share those recordings with their employees to “help improve their services”. Just think about what you’re revealing about yourself and your family, and how that information might be used in the future.

What about Facebook? Facebook uses demographic targeting and location tracking to track your every move. Why? So that it can signal an advertiser that you might be interested in their product. Gennie Gebhart, a research director for the Electronic Frontier Foundation, has studied Facebook’s targeting efforts. She gives an example in USA Today, of an employee in their 20s who is planning a move to an apartment and orders a U-Haul. Because Facebook knows so much about you, it can sense you might want a new mattress for the new apartment. Bam, targeted ads for mattresses are in your feed. “It's remarkably easy for an eerily accurate targeted ad to make its way to you," cautions Gebhart.

Ultimately, it boils down to this, “If you are not paying for the product, you are the product,” from the documentary The Social Dilemma. We outline six steps to help you avoid targeted marketing via the latest on-demand webinar, Help Employees Manage Privacy Against Google, Facebook and Other Big Tech Companies.

Yes, big tech is spying on all of us

To learn more about the digital trail of information we leave with every click, swipe, like, and purchase, read Somebody’s Watching Me: How Our Online Behavior is Being Tracked.

Sadly, there is no quick fix. magical wizard. There is no Glinda, the Good Witch of the North to come to our rescue. But there are solutions to help your employees and clients protect their privacy from risks and dangers, such as identity theft. Privacy protection is a timely and compelling employee and member benefit. Furthermore, it can be a secret weapon to tighten up your company’s cybersecurity by offering total identity and privacy monitoring, dark web monitoring, and — the most popular — social media protection.