I think, the thing to remember is that the second you connect to the internet, you *must* accept that everything you are doing can be seen and analysed by “someone”. Whether that someone is the government, a criminal, a private company etc., is irrelevant, “someone” could potentially build a profile on you.

Even if you connect via the most secure Virtual Private Network, with end-to-end encryption, and use a search engine that supposedly doesn’t record your searches and history, by the very nature of the electronic form of communication, you run the risk of someone intercepting and analysing what you do. No matter how secure you think you are, you are not. Mistakes happen, information leaks, is stolen, falls into the public domain, is subject to access by authorities, etc., etc.

The question is are you ok with that? If you are, then that’s ok. Judging from the most intimate of things that people seem to post on sites, quite openly and freely, it seems many of us are ok with it. If we weren’t, then we wouldn’t be having this conversation on here now.

Jeff.