This chapter covers
- How data is created from daily online actions and offline activities
- Where data travels and where it is stored
- How leveraging multiple sources of data increases the ability of companies to target you
- Free online services like email and apps are not truly free
- What you can begin to do to control your data
Customers need to be given control of their own data . . .1
How much time do you spend on your mobile device? A recent study by data.ai (née App Annie) showed that “across the top 10 markets analyzed, the weighted average surpassed 4 hours 48 minutes in 2021—up 30% from 2019. Users in Brazil, Indonesia and South Korea surpassed 5 hours per day in mobile apps in 2021. The average American watched 3.1 hours of TV a day, whereas they spent 4.1 hours on their mobile device in 2021.”2 That is a substantial amount of each person’s day. Keep in mind, not only are all those individuals using apps and browsing content, but they are also generating data.
The average American has 80 apps downloaded on their phone. The average smartphone owner uses 9–10 apps per day and 30 per month, according to the staffing firm Zippia.3 In today’s data ecosystem, most of us cannot know, much less control, where data is recorded, stored, integrated, and used to analyze and target everyone.