[xQx]

Argh.

In 1999 I was the sysadmin at a school with 300 teachers and 2,000 students. I could read everybody's email, and view everybody's files. The student & staff IT policies were clear (they should've been, I wrote them). I could, and I did. (well, not everybody's. Because most people are boring.)

I was often asked "Can you read my email?". My answer was consistent "Yes. But I don't even read my email. Most people's email is boring. Why do you ask, is yours interesting?" ... Students would almost universally accept it and walk away. Staff would almost always look a little offended ... half the time they'd follow up with "Really?" to which I'd reply "Yes. Technically it's very easy. Policy-wise, it's very clear. Email is school property."

For the first five years that I had email, I never wondered if anybody else could read it - because my 'personal' address was loaded as an alternative mailbox on my Boss's PC.

... so, as someone who grew up running a large IT environment, it still amazes me that somewhere along the line there became this belief that email was a private and personal method of communication.

If you'd like some pointers about how to protect your privacy online, I'm more than happy to help. But here are a few things you need to accept, get over, stop trying to fight, and deal with.

1.) You have no privacy. That ended in the mid 90's (probably a lot earlier). Any privacy you believe you have is an illusion.
2.) Any free service is free because the data they collect about you is more valuable to them as a product for their customers than having you are as a paying customer is.
3.) Point 2 is a bit difficult to understand, but it's important, so let me say it again. You are not Google, Youtube, Facebook, Reddit or Twitter's customer. You are their product. Their advertisers are their customer and anything you say or do, how you say it, when you do it and who you say it to or do it with is sold to anyone willing to buy it.
4.) Just because something's encrypted, doesn't make it private. Just because something's anonymous, doesn't make it private. Just because something is private now, doesn't mean it always will be. Given enough time, anything put online will either be accidentally deleted, or made public.

So, in practical terms, here's the thing. If you want to keep something private, don't put it online.

Email is not a secure form of communications. Facebook Privacy settings doesn't make stuff private. Your employer can read your email. Microsoft, Facebook, Google etc. all sell your data, your personal information and stuff about you that you didn't even know you'd given them - for profit.

This isn't tinfoil hat bullshit, and I'm not saying it so you can get up in arms about it. I'm saying it so you can accept it, move on, and manage your own privacy.

If you're at all concerned about google reading your email, encrypt it.

And no, it's not going to be easy for any of your recipients to easily read what you've sent them. You're going to have to teach them how to decrypt your messages. No, you can't use search across encrypted emails; if you can, it's probably not good encryption.

You get ads about stuff you've recently searched for in google on facebook because facebook use google adwords. It's not creepy, it's simple data collection and use. Many, many sites use google data analytics to provide site owners with usage statistics. So if you visit these sites, if Google can link your visit to your browser - you then get ads for similar services.

Hey, did you know if you've got google maps on your phone you're probably giving Google the right to sell anyone they want information about where you were at any given moment of the day, and who else was in that location at the same time for deep analysis?

Here's the saving grace: You're not that important.

You're just one of a million people who hand over this data on a daily basis. No need to worry. .... unless you end up being important to someone with the means and motive to acquire and analyse this data.