Amazon, Facebook and Google say they really care about our privacy. But do they?

They’ve loaded their products and services that monitor each of us, knowing that we are largely ignorant of their intrusive behavior.

The use of private data is fast-evolving in the courts and changing how lawsuits are done, from civil cases to criminal trials to divorce court. Data that is seemingly irrelevant to a lawsuit can cause great embarrassment for the unwitting.

If you’re someone who values your privacy, there are things you can do to protect your data. Who knows, it may even help you in court down the road:

iPhone: Every iPhone is a homing device. Its location-tracking feature is essential for accurate GPS navigation and weather reports. But it also means that the company can monitor your movements.

Apple records only a few months’ worth of your location data and stores it on your phone, not on Apple’s own computers. You can wipe this information whenever you like. But other iPhone apps can also track your location. This may make sense for, say, a trucking company app., but not so much for a gaming app. The gaming company might try to sell your location data to a third party.

On the iPhone’s Settings menu, under the Privacy tab is Location Services, which lists every app that transmits your location. The settings show whether the app tracks you all the time (“always”), only when you are using the app (“while using”) or never (“never”). For each app, you can limit location access to “always,” “while using,” or “never.”

At the bottom of the menu is another option, “System Services.” Here you’ll find “Significant Locations,” which records where you’ve been located lately. You again have the choice to allow the locator or to decline such tracking.

Android: Android’s location tracking lets app makers keep tabs on your movements. Like with the iPhone, you can turn the location service on or off for each app.

Unless you have limited Google’ data retention capabilities, Google knows every move you’ve made. Fortunately, Google lets you delete this data. For example, in Google Maps, select Settings, then Map History. You can order Google to erase your map records and even tell it to stop recording data altogether.

You can also lock down your phone’s contact list, to prevent the phone’s apps from learning too much about your friends and colleagues. To do this, go to Settings and Apps and check the permissions list for apps that have access to your contacts. There’s a similar feature on the iPhone’s privacy page.

Google Dashboard: At the Google Dashboard, you’ll find privacy controls that help you manage your Android phone, your Google Internet searches, Maps location data, and practically every other interaction with an Alphabet product.

If you haven’t restricted the data from being stored, you’ll find a history of the videos you’ve watched on YouTube, photos you shot with your Android’s camera, and the recordings of your voice commands to Google Assistant.

Google uses all of this data to target you with more-relevant advertising. Google notes that it can be helpful to a user because the user can download a backup copy of this data. You can delete some or all of the data, and you can prevent it from being stored going forward.

Google Dashboard lets you pick and choose. Maybe you want Google to track all your movements, but don’t want it to save your Internet searches.

Google Dashboard also allows you to automatically delete your Google searches, your Google Maps location data, and information about the apps you use — after either three months or 18 months. It’s a set-and-forget approach that makes it easier to keep your data under your control.

Chrome: Chrome is the world’s most popular Web browser. Chrome syncs all the different devices on which you use the browser, so users have access to bookmarks and saved passwords, regardless of how they access them. The sync also shares your personal data with Google’s cloud-based computers.

If you value your privacy , you should go to your Chrome browser and switch off the auto-sync setting.

Google also said it will make it easier to identify and block cookies, a device which enables websites you visit to monitor which sites you visit.

Alexa: Amazon’s hugely popular voice-control system is now embedded in dozens of common digital products — each capturing snippets of household speech and sharing them with the giant online retailer. Alexa is supposed to record only when a user says the wake-up word, but it sometimes hears a bit too much. The Alexa app has a command to show your stored Alexa recordings. Again, if you value your privacy, you should delete them.

Keep in mind that even if you delete the recordings, it is widely rumored that Amazon, after deleting the voice recordings, still retains a text transcript.

It should also be noted that there are many third-party voice-controlled Alexa apps, called “skills,” that might collect sensitive data. The Alexa app has a setup screen for monitoring them.

Facebook: In recent lawsuits, Facebook postings have been used in court to strike jurors, prove someone wasn’t where they claimed to be, undermine testimony, and reject job applicants. Transparency as to data isn’t always helpful.

You should make sure your Facebook messages can be seen only by online friends, rather than by every Facebook user. And, while you are at it, make sure that your list of online Facebook friends can’t be seen by strangers trolling your page.

For your Facebook profile, you can limit the details others can see. For instance, you may share your date of birth only with Facebook friends, not strangers. You can remove certain details altogether. And you can prevent your Facebook page from appearing in a Google search, making it a little harder to find you.

Do you use your Facebook password to log onto other websites? If so, you’re sharing too much information with Facebook. Start logging in with a unique password, instead.

You can also prevent Facebook from using facial-recognition software to identify you in other peoples’ pictures or stop the company from including you in targeted ads for products that you “liked” with a mouse click.

Of course, the simplest way to protect your privacy on Facebook is to be selective about what you publish there.

Your Automobile: In 1983, in the wake of the tragedy of the downing of the Korean Airlines Flight 007, an aircraft which was shot down while in Soviet airspace due to a navigational error, President Reagan made the navigation capabilities of the existing military GPS system available for dual civilian use. In 2000, the Clinton administration removed the military use signal restrictions, thus providing full commercial access to the US GPS satellite system. Today, GPA systems are incorporated into automobiles, smartphones, cameras, animal tracking devices, and just about every high-tech device sold on the market.

What does this mean for your car? Your car knows where you are, can listen to you in your vehicle, can store that information, and can share that information with others. It registers and maintains where you have been and what speed you drove. It can lock your doors, flash your lights, and locate your car. It can tell you if traffic ahead is congested.

These features are great for public safety. In Boston, the Marathon bombers were quickly tracked by police when they carjacked a Mercedes crossover, triggering the onboard “imbrace” telematics system. There are several instances where people isolated and injured in a car off the road can be located by the system. Police can determine the true cause of an accident by downloading the data on a car as to speed, time, and braking distance. Trucking companies regularly use the data to monitor the driving habits of their drivers.

There is a cost to this advancement, however, when it comes to privacy. The tracking devices can be used to monitor employees, spouses and customers. Auto lenders and auto renters use GPS devices to track when you leave town, how many times you go to the medical clinic, where you park the car and, if necessary, remotely disable a cars ignition. A woman in Nevada said her vehicle was shut down on a freeway. Others state they have been marooned in dangerous neighborhoods. One mother was unable to take her feverish child to a hospital. Collection agents have been known to hack into the devices and monitor the activities of debtors: where they go and what they do.

Many state legislatures, and the Federal Trade Commission, are weighing the balance between the benefit of GPS to consumers and the privacy infringement it creates.

CONCLUSION: The use of personal data is now prevalent in our society…and in our judicial system. If you want to retain some anonymity in the modern world, consider taking steps to protect yourself from these high technology gadgets.

If your business or organization needs help with a legal matter, please feel free to contact former Minnesota Attorney General Lori Swanson or former Minnesota Attorney General Mike Hatch at the law firm of Swanson Hatch, P.A. They can be reached at 612-315-3037. They are the only law firm in Minnesota with not one but two former Minnesota Attorneys General. Visit their website at www.swansonhatch.com. Mike Hatch previously served as Minnesota Commissioner of Commerce. Lori Swanson previously served as Chair of the Federal Reserve Board’s Consumer Advisory Council in Washington, D.C.

Lori Swanson: lswanson@swansonhatch.com
Mike Hatch: mhatch@swansonhatch.com