You might have woken up in the last few days with more than an average number of emails. Sorry, it's not because you suddenly got more famous but because every company that has contact with you sent you their updated privacy policy. So why is every company updating their privacy policy to the point that you are so irritated that you had to Google for it? To put simply, because they have to.
And that reason means that just about every company that you made contact with at one point is sending you this. Most likely not because they care about you, but because those are now the rules, rules that are now being turned into a meme, MKBHD even made a joke about it.
The reason behind every company updating their privacy policy?
The EU.
The EU has passed the law to help Europeans control what companies use. How? By needing to tell you exactly what they do with your data meaning that they are limited in terms of some methods that they would for sure not like to share with you.
The sites that do not comply with the new law will be forced to pay massive fines of 4% of the company's turn over or up to €20 million which is why certain sites such as the Los Angeles Times is not currently available in Europe.
And that shows that most companies really don’t care about your data.
This law isn’t new at all. It was created in 2016 and was set to kick in on the 25th of May, 2018. Companies had 2 years to adjust. And for that, there’s no excuse for why some aren't available.
If this law were passed due to the whole Facebook privacy issue that was recently talked about, then it sure would make sense that some companies wouldn’t have time to adjust. But they had two years.
Not really.
For most companies, this is merely a marketing stunt. A way to get more engagement and win back lost attention. Most of these messages focus on customers following the company rather than privacy.
And the law itself doesn’t protect your data fully.
It’s a great step forward when it comes to privacy, but it doesn’t make you fully protected on the internet.
The law makes sure that you can delete the information that you share, can download it, and can see how it is used but when you are getting a bunch of same emails with lengthy privacy policies, it’s hard to expect somebody to read the newly updated policies.
You are still exposed to data theft whether that’s passwords to addresses, and anybody can see what you search for or find your payment methods. This law applies to companies, but individuals can still use data that you share whether you are aware of it or not in a way that would be potentially impossible to track.
Use a VPN.
You were wondering why is every company updating their privacy policy, but PrivateVPN is a business based on privacy. This is what we provide to users. From using Wi-Fi in Starbucks to on a bus, whenever you connect to a Wi-Fi that is not yours, and even then, you are at risk of somebody stealing your data.
And that’s why we offer 256-bit encryption with 2048-bit DH key that is impossible to crack unless a government was to go bankrupt. We turn whatever you access to something that is complete nonsense to everybody but you. That way whenever any information is getting sent to you or by you, nobody can intercept that data.
All you need to do is make an account with us by pressing the Buy button and going through our 3-step registration process followed by downloading our client by pressing on the Download tab on the bottom of our page. Lastly, connect to one of our many servers and you are good to go when it comes to privacy when accessing Wi-Fi when not at home, or when it comes to staying protected from the internet providers or the government when you are also at home.
Provided that you are always connected.
Written by Michael Smolski.