We're bombarding our favourite websites with information about ourselves; our interests and hobbies, where we've been, our relationships and the events that we're going to. It's an enormous treasure trove of information, and it's incredibly valuable to advertisers and businesses.
The more that companies know about you, the more targeted and personalised ads they can send your way and the more money they can make. This is how websites like Facebook can offer their services for free; you're the product that's being sold. However, we were interested to find out exactly what information the website heavyweights are collecting about us.
Facebook
This social media giant is one of the most popular websites in the world, and is constantly being inundated with information about us. It was recently revealed that Facebook can target users who feel 'worthless' or 'insecure' - and we're fairly confident that's only the tip of the iceberg.
Every like helps Facebook to analyse you, and then send advertisers in your direction. It can also recognise your face using facial recognition, and if you're logged in it can even track you across other websites to see what you're up to.
If you're interested in what boxes Facebook has popped you into (or at least, the ones they're willing to tell you about) you can check it here.
Google
Even if you aren't using Google Plus, Google knows a lot of information about you that it can use to its advantage. Obviously, everything you've ever searched for is on record (you can turn this feature off here, or delete your copy of it here) as well as every YouTube video you've ever watched.
If you've ever said 'Ok, Google' to your device, all your searches are collated as well as the accompanying audio clips. It can also scan your emails for anything advertisers would find valuable; and if you have location history turned on, there's a big list of everywhere you've been aswell.
Google also has a page of identifiers for you, as well as a list of things it thinks you don't like; you can check it out here.
Amazon
Even if you don't have Alexa installed in your home, Amazon still knows a lot about you from your buying habits.
Amazon has redefined eCommerce; using big data from all of its users, it knows what products you'll probably be interested in, as well as the books you might like to read on your Kindle and the shows you might fancy watching. It also knows what price you're likely to pay, and can adjust its pricing to convince you to checkout.
Twitter
Twitter is also an advertisers dream; the site has lots of regular users, and is almost constantly updated with their views and interests.
Twitter has a big list of the subjects you're interested in, which for us was fairly comprehensive and extremely accurate. This is all worked out through your likes, tweets and re-tweets. Twitter also knows what websites you're visiting while you're logged in (turn that feature off here). You can also find out how many advertising lists you're on.
Worried about your information being out there?
The majority of your browsing habits are worthless to advertisers. They're only interested in data that can be used to create adverts you're likely to click, or ways in which they can convince you to part with your cash. But if you're still finding it all a bit creepy, the majority of websites will let you opt-out of targeted ads. You'll still see advertisements, but they'll probably interest you less.
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