Selling your data is a valuable activity for many companies trading online.  This data is aggregated and resold many times.  This is a 2014 report by the Federal Trade Commission entitled “Data Brokers: A Call for Transparency and Accountability“ that outlines the practice, the leading brokers and questions about its future.

AVG has made this rather endearing video that describes how it sells the data collected from users of its free antivirus product.  AVG should be applauded for making it clear what data it sells, particularly in contrast to the vague and uncertain definitions offered by many companies in this regard.

Here is an interesting infographic from VisualCapitalist about what personal data is worth.

You can even take a guess at how much your data is worth to traders using the Financial Times’ calculator here

There is no panacea to controlling your personal data.  Reading the privacy policies is generally a thankless task.  Instead, it is up to you to limit what you share with these services through your privacy settings and your choice of whether to have their software on your machine.

Some recommendations:

• Pay for your security software.  It is essential to your security.  Alternatively, ask whether you are prepared to be paid £30 to have potential spyware on your machine.
• Turn off unwanted features on your devices
• Remove unwanted software from your devices
• Check your privacy settings: in your operating system, on websites you use (e.g. Facebook), in mobile apps.
• Use search engines that do not collate your information such as ixquick.com.
• Use public wifi with caution