Spent $60 on a 'privacy' browser extension that basically just sold my data to itself

So I got spooked by all the tracking talk and dropped sixty bucks on this fancy privacy extension last month. It promised to block all the creepy cookies and hide my digital footprint. The setup was a pain, it broke half the websites I use for work estimates, and my search results got weirdly specific about floor adhesives. The real kicker? I dug into their privacy policy after my credit card info felt a little too 'remembered' on a shopping site. Turns out the company that makes the extension also owns a data brokerage firm. So my 'private' browsing habits were probably just getting packaged and sold by the same people I paid to protect me. I feel like an idiot. Has anyone else had a privacy tool totally backfire like this? What do you actually trust?

3 comments

3 Comments

angelas783mo ago

Wait, they own the data broker too? That's like paying a security guard who also runs the burglary ring. So your sixty bucks basically just moved your data to a different folder in their own office. What even is the point of that? It's not a privacy tool, it's a data collection tool with extra steps.

miles5813mo ago

Reminds me of when my uncle paid a company to remove his info from people search sites. Found out later the same parent company owned three of them. He was just moving his name between their own spreadsheets. Felt like buying a lock from the guy who already has your key. The whole industry seems built on that kind of shell game. Makes you wonder who the customer really is.

elliotjenkins12d ago

Honestly that's exactly what I was thinking reading your post. It's like paying a locksmith to change your locks only to find out he made copies of your keys first. My cousin paid one of those services and a month later he started getting even more spam calls than before. They literally just take your info and sell it to their other data broker subsidiaries. Feels like the whole privacy industry is just a way to get you to hand over more personal data willingly. Ngl it makes you feel pretty stupid for trying to do the right thing.