You posted your life online, and now you're angry that someone read it.

[continentalop2]

67. I think you misunderstand how this all works

I saw where you mentioned that you're not a facebook user and haven't posted any personal info online. But guess what, Facebook still likely has a profile created for you! They're called shadow profiles. Let's say even one of your friends, family members or acquaintances registered on Facebook and gave FB access to their contacts. Whatever info your friend had saved in their contacts under your name is now connected to a a "shadow profile" of you whether or not you even have a FB account. They likely have your name, address, email address, phone number and any other info that a friend may have saved in their contacts.

I've seen people mention that they signed up for FB under a fake name, or use multiple accounts, as though FB can't track your IP and figure out who you are anyway. Every website you visit is tracking you, and every purchase you make using credit cards, store loyalty cards, or coupons on an app on your phone is being tracked. Other apps you may have installed might be tracking your location. All of this information is being sold to data mining companies and can be correlated with other data to create a more complete picture of who you are.

You can sign up for FB with a fake name, make friends, and never post anything, and people can figure out who you are based on your network of friends. A few friends from your hometown who all went to the same high school together plus maybe a cluster of friends from college, and that's enough information to pinpoint who you are. This method has been used to catch Anonymous hackers.

BTW, there's all of this talk about the psychological profiles that Cambridge Analytica created, and I would assume that people who avoid facebook, use fake names, or never post any personal info can probably be associated with a particular psychological profile as well.