Really, Google and Facebook Watch our Moving Everytime

It's Time to Make Them Stop 'DuckDuckGo's search engine CEO recently published an op-ed on CNBC that explains why Google and Facebook should be prevented from tracking users of every move.

Op-ed written by Gabriel Weinberg, CEO and founder of DuckDuckGo, published by CNBC. Weinberg alleges that the only way to advance data privacy is to crack down on companies like Google and Facebook.

To make real progress in advancing data privacy this year, we have to start doing something about Google and Facebook. The impact of both companies on our privacy can not be ignored. You probably know that hidden trackers lurk in most of the websites you visit, absorbing your personal information.

Weinberg goes on to explain further how overreaching the strengths these companies have:
But what you might not realize is that 76 percent of websites now contain hidden Google trackers, and 24 percent have hidden Facebook trackers, according to Princeton's Principles of Transparency & Accountability Project . The next highest is Twitter with 12 percent.

The possibility of Google or Facebook seeing you on many sites you visit, in addition to tracking you when using their products. As a result, the two companies collect a lot of profile data on everyone, which can include your interests, purchases, searches, browsing history and your location, and more.

They then create a profile of your sensitive data available for invasive target ads that can follow you on the Internet.

Weinberg illustrates how this information is used for "target hyper" ads to users:
Due to their deeply rooted position in various Internet services, each collecting personal information combined into this massive digital profile, Google and Facebook can offer hyper-targeting better than the competition.

As a result, they now make up 63 percent of all digital advertising, and account for 74 percent of the market growth in 2017, according to eMarketer. Together they formed a strict digital advertising duopoly, showing no sign of abating.

According to Weinberg, regulation is the answer to these issues:
Do not be fooled by self-regulating claims, as every useful long-term reform of Google and Facebook data privacy practices is fundamentally opposed to their core business model: hyper-targeted ads based on personal surveillance which is more and more annoying.
Change must come from the outside.

Unfortunately, we have seen relatively little of Washington. Congress and federal agents need to see more freshly what can be done to curb this data monopoly. They first need to demand transparency of algorithmic and transparency policies, so that people can truly understand the extent to which their personal information is collected, processed and used by these companies. Only with that can be informed of possible approval.

Read the full op-ed on CNBC. Lucas Nolan is a reporter for Breitbart News that covers the issue of free speech and online censorship.