Offline data is being merged with online data and sold to insurance companies and others. The Wall Street Journal reports that “Websites Vary Prices based on User Information” so for example Kim and Trude who live a few miles apart saw a 10% difference in the price quoted online at the same website for the same product ( WSJ Article). Are companies really using my browsing history to determine if I get a job or health insurance or other things? Your browsing is personal and valuable, protect it. The goal of a governmental surveillance system is to effectively build "prisons in our minds." Writers around the world are already reporting chilling self-censorship effects from government surveillance. If you know you're under surveillance, you're significantly less likely to research or express minority views. Or visiting a site about diabetes treatments then applying for health insurance policies only to find all of them won’t cover “diabetes related illness.” Beyond that, privacy is essential to freedom of thought. Imagine visiting webpages on getting out of a speeding ticket one day then seeing your car insurance rates go up a few months later. It can and is being used to determine if you can get health or life insurance, what price to charge you at online stores, your job application status, and much more. It's often bundled with your offline data like your purchases,location, credit history, and personal identity and this data is sold on data exchanges every single day. Your browsing history reveal a lot about who you are. Why should I worry about my browsing not being private? Privacy is essential to all of those ends. We believe in free investigation, free minds, and a free internet. Through internalized self-censorship, this creates a kind of prison in our minds. When you're under surveillance or being tracked, you think twice before investigating certain ideas or visiting certain websites. We believe privacy is essential to a free internet. What you browse is no one’s business but your own. We believe that what you browse online should be private.
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