## Privacy <br/> While cyber stalking myself, I was most curious while looking up "Elias Perisic" what videos would pop up.![](https://i.imgur.com/YVVffYf.png) To my surprise, the second video result was a TikTok my friend had made on which I commented. I had no idea my full name was even associated with TikTok, let alone that a google search of my name would show what I commented. Luckily, this video is the only TikTok video I have ever left a comment on. <br/> ![](https://i.imgur.com/oszUWCD.jpg) The first picture on the image search is my Linkedin profile picture, nothing too alarming or privacy breaching. Next is an image that links to a football highlight of a touchdown catch I had in high school, a very random result I did not expect to see. Most of the other results are of the famous soccer player "Ivan Perisic", who scored in the 2018 world cup final, who I often lie about and claim to be my cousin. <br/> The site "what every browser knows about you" did not show anything too alarming, it was not able to find my location. However, I found it really interesting that it could see exactly how much battery I have: ![](https://i.imgur.com/4mCrqy7.png) Haridy (2019) mentions that some apps are randomly taking screenshots of people's screens and sending it to third parties. A screenshot can reveal very sensitive information about someone's personal life, and that information is also highly lucrative to advertisers. However, it is nice to know that "every browser" is not doing this, instead, they only know the battery level of my computer, something not private or very important to me at all. I would not be too worried if some site knew I was in Boston, however, the site was not even able to pinpoint where I was, which was nice. <br/> Checking for privacy tips felt relieving in a sense, all the tips seemed unnecessary and there were no red flags. Looking at my Google ad preferences showed me how little Google knows me: ![](https://i.imgur.com/6JLVaNL.png) Weirdly, my top ads are for Women's clothing. Further, in the "brands for you" none of those brands are particularly interesting to me. Mountain Dew? I haven't had Mountain Dew in over 10 years. The fact that my ads are so off of my interests shows me that either the internet may not be tracking me so severely as many people say, or, I'm good at surfing the internet without leaving breadcrumbs. I have a VPN on most of the time and an adblocker, these two things could be why Google knows so little about me. For example, Kernighan (2017) talks about how when someone Googles "car accident" lawyers will likely show up because someone in a car accident will probably need a lawyer. However, when I make the same search, I don't get lawyer ads: ![](https://i.imgur.com/7o6YtCP.png) Due to my adblocker, I am able to make Google searches and only get the results I am looking for, not what advertisers want me to see. <br/> When it comes to Instagram, I do not have a private account, but I do not let people see my activity status. I chose not to show my activity status not out of fear of privacy, but just so when I didn't text people back, they couldn't see I was active on Instagram and get upset. My Instagram privacy settings are overall rather weak; however, I am not too worried since I don't leave comments, make vulnerable searches, or use the Instagram shopping feature which could, in theory, reveal some personal information.