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Privacy: fun facts and quiz
The essentials in 7 ideas, with fun facts, an illustrated story and a quiz to see how much you know.
The essentials
Your Data Trail
Almost everything you do online leaves data: searches, likes, locations and purchases. Companies collect it to personalise services and target ads.
Key fact
Free apps are often paid for with your data.
App Permissions
Apps ask for permissions, like your camera, microphone or location. You can usually refuse them, or change them later in settings.
Key fact
A torch app rarely needs your contacts.
Privacy Settings
Social apps let you choose who sees your posts. Setting accounts to private and sharing less, like your address or school, protects you.
Key fact
Photos can carry hidden location data unless it’s turned off.
Privacy Laws
Laws protect personal data. Europe’s GDPR, in force since 2018, lets people ask what data companies hold about them and request its deletion.
Key fact
GDPR fines can reach 4% of a company’s global turnover.
Tracking & Incognito
Trackers and cookies follow you between websites to build a profile of your interests. Many browsers can block them.
Key fact
Incognito mode hides your history on your device, not from websites.
Private Messaging
With end-to-end encryption, only you and the person you message can read it, not even the app company. WhatsApp and Signal use it by default.
Key fact
Encrypted messages look like gibberish to anyone else.
Your Digital Footprint
What you post can stay online for years, even after you delete it, because others may have copied it. Thinking before posting protects your future self.
Key fact
Many employers look people up online.
Fun facts
Many websites load dozens of hidden trackers that note your visit for advertisers.
Modern phones show a small coloured dot whenever an app is using the camera or microphone.
A photo’s hidden details can also record the phone model and the exact time it was taken.
In 2023, Meta was fined a record 1.2 billion euros under GDPR, for sending Europeans’ data to the US.
Websites can recognise your browser even without cookies, from details like screen size and fonts. It’s called fingerprinting.
The encryption system built for the Signal app also protects WhatsApp messages.
Anyone can ask the Wayback Machine to save a page right away.
Story: The Photo That Gave Him Away
The Photo That Gave Him Away
December 2012. Software millionaire John McAfee is on the run, wanted for questioning over a death in Belize. His hiding place is secret.
Journalists travelling with him post a photo online. Hidden in the file is the GPS location where the phone took it: Guatemala.
Within days he was found and arrested there. Phones still tag photos with where they were taken, unless you switch it off.
True or false?
Tap your answer to see if you got it, and why.
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Question 1 of 10
Online activity leaves a trail of data.
Show the answer
True. Searches, clicks, locations and more.
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Question 2 of 10
You can change app permissions in your settings.
Show the answer
True. And turn off ones you don’t need.
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Question 3 of 10
Photos can contain hidden location data.
Show the answer
True. Stored in the file’s details.
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Question 4 of 10
GDPR lets people request their personal data.
Show the answer
True. And ask for it to be corrected or deleted.
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Question 5 of 10
Incognito mode doesn’t hide you from the websites you visit.
Show the answer
True. They can still see your visit.
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Question 6 of 10
End-to-end encryption stops the app company reading your messages.
Show the answer
True. Only the two ends hold the keys.
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Question 7 of 10
Deleted posts can survive if someone copied them.
Show the answer
True. Screenshots and archives last.
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Question 8 of 10
Free apps never collect any data.
Show the answer
False. Many rely on data and ads to make money.
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Question 9 of 10
Every app needs access to your contacts to work.
Show the answer
False. Most don’t need them at all.
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Question 10 of 10
Posts set to public can only be seen by friends.
Show the answer
False. Public means anyone can see them.
Keep going in the app
KnowSoda learns what you know and brings back what you’re about to forget. Privacy has 6 more ideas at the Advanced and Expert levels.
Sources
- European Commission — Data protection (GDPR)
- Electronic Frontier Foundation — Surveillance self-defense
- UK Information Commissioner’s Office — Your data matters
- Internet Archive — Wayback Machine
- Sweeney (2000), simple demographics often identify people uniquely, Carnegie Mellon University
- de Montjoye et al. (2013), unique in the crowd, Scientific Reports 3
- Information Commissioner’s Office — Right of access
