Contents
Data Harvesting
Data harvesting is the process of extracting data from a given source. This data can be obtained from a variety of sources, such as:
- Websites
- Online surveys
- Customer feedback forms
- Social media posts
- Data sets
Once this data is collected, a business may use it to understand customers or to plan research. Collecting data does not make it yours to reuse. If the information identifies a person, the collector needs a lawful reason and has to say what they will do with it.
What is harvested data used for?
The common business use is marketing: a shop looks at what people already bought or browsed, then decides which message to show. Researchers also use collected data to study a question. Both uses still have to follow the privacy rules of the place where the person lives.
How to limit what gets collected
- Check each app’s permissions and turn off any permission the app does not need to do its job.
- Do not type a card number, password, home address, or identity number into a form you did not mean to open.
- Use the privacy settings inside the account itself, such as Google, Facebook, or the app store account.
- A VPN encrypts traffic on the local network. It does not stop a site you log in to from knowing which account is signed in.
- Read what a site says it collects before you create an account.
