At some point the internet got extremely good at remembering us. Your browser remembers your name. The store remembers your address. The ad network remembers what you looked at three weeks ago. Some company you've completely forgotten making an account with still has an email address, phone number, purchase history, device information, or whatever else seemed reasonable to hand over at the time.
None of this requires a shadowy room full of people plotting against you. It's mostly databases doing what databases do, attached to businesses with perfectly understandable reasons for wanting more information. Retailers want to understand customers. Advertising platforms want better targeting. Analytics companies want better measurement. Data brokers make a business out of assembling information. The interesting part is what happens when all these boring little pieces start connecting.
Now try disconnecting them.
This is where the whole thing becomes stupid and the hope for you to give up due to redundancy really becomes apparent.
- Privacy Choices.
- Do Not Sell or Share.
- Consumer Request.
- Access My Information.
- Delete My Information.
- Suppression Request.
Same general objective, six different names, buried in six different places. Sometimes there's a form. Sometimes there's an email address. Sometimes you get to enjoy the privilege of verifying your identity to a company specifically because you would like that company to stop having information about your identity.
Pause for a sec... that’s literally giving more updated information, JUST to get your information or STOP surrendering your information.
I got tired of digging through this shit, so I set up PrivacyPilot.
I engineered the backend and vibe coded the GUI because fuck all that noise. PrivacyPilot maps companies and websites that retain personal information and links you to the direct site that allows you to opt-out or delete your currently harvested info. With your autofill information, that you probably already have in your browser, you can burn through a surprising amount of repetitive privacy paperwork without manually typing the same information fifty times.
It's open source and doesn't stash any information on your device, nor harvest any information on your device.. It's just there to do a job.
A humbling realization everytime: Convenience and security are two sides of the same coin.
Every time a computer remembers something so you don't have to, something now remembers it. That isn't automatically bad. It isn't automatically good either. It's a trade. The important part is knowing the trade exists instead of sleepwalking through another Accept All button because you wanted to read one article about how long to boil an egg, how to get a stripped screw out, or how the fuck daylight savings time works.