Stop the data thief! Who wants your data and how to protect yourself

What does Amazon know about us? How does Facebook make money? Does Google read my messages? The topics of data protection, digital privacy, and informational self-determination are as explosive as they are underestimated, as forward-looking as they are alarming. Anyone participating in the modern world is affected. Yet hardly anyone understands the nearly mafia-like structures raging behind the scenes of the cyber universe. Innocently, we feed the web and global internet companies with our most intimate details, without thinking about the consequences of unrestrained data transparency and the activities of the tech giants. My new book "Stop the Data Thief! Who wants your data. What they do with it. How to protect yourself" (GABAL Verlag) opens the eyes of the unaware. Step by step, it speaks the creepy truths and shines a spotlight on machinations that will astonish the average user. It is known that big companies work with our data. What is shocking, however, is the extreme extent and hidden sources; how systematically, consistently, and unnoticed data thieves earn a fortune with our information - and the consequences this has for individuals and society. Understandable for both tech enthusiasts and skeptics, for teenagers and seniors, for experienced individuals or novices - everyone can understand where the threats lurk, which technologies are at work in the background, how companies profit from our clicks, and what happens if we continue to make it as easy for the robbers as we have so far. At the same time, readers will find clear guidance on how consumers can arm themselves today and in the future to best protect their fundamental right to digital privacy, without having to give up services like WhatsApp, Instagram, or voice assistants. Step by step towards digital enlightenment The relevance of digital security and privacy is growing exponentially along with technological progress. New procedures are entering the market faster and faster, companies are more cunningly seizing our secrets to sell them. It is no longer just about the posts we share on social media, voluntarily post, and seemingly control. The internet giants register every click, every movement, every duration of stay. They store everything, infer thoughts from behavior, create personality profiles, and expose us. They sell digital doppelgangers at high prices under the table to the advertising industry, develop new products based on our weaknesses, deceive and manipulate us without us noticing. The money machine constantly draws from the full pool, the data pool continues to grow. People navigate to a restaurant on Google Maps, communicate via WhatsApp, a friend tags our photo, someone invites us to an online event, we retweet a post, read an article... the list is endless, not to mention the sea of metadata. Every minute, consumers leave a multitude of traces on the internet, allowing data thieves to endlessly help themselves to the most valuable currency of the information age. Careless media use leads to dramatic consequences. Anyone who navigates naively on the internet, uses a smartphone, smart car, smart watch, smart pay, smart speaker, or smart TV unreflectively, becomes a victim of the information age. Controlled by others, manipulated, and conditioned, they turn into a product of the tech players. When Google, Meta, and others know everything and calculate the rest through algorithms, consumers are defenseless. There are no more taboos - whether we are sick or healthy, mentally stable or fragile, low or high performers, pretenders or protesters, happy or frustrated. Once the data twin is born, we have lost control over our lives. My mission: Data protection for everyone, shedding light into the shady corners of the web, informing and supporting consumers, and creating an awareness for our time, future, and freedom. Anyone who wants to prevent internet giants from growing into state-like constructs and who wants to continue living self-determinedly in ten years must actively protect themselves. "Stop the Data Thief!" helps everyone to cast fewer digital shadows, build competencies for safe handling of modern technologies, and preserve the fundamental right to informational self-determination.