Complete manual/46/en

The different types of digital traces we create are recorded and stored. Those traces are constantly being collected, sorted, and analysed by various parties to create or complete profiles on you. Routinely, every time a new piece of data or metadata is created, it's also recorded and aggregated along with other data for analysis, and then added to your profile. These profiles are ever-expanding and differ for different service providers. They give those who create and have access to them immensely detailed insight into who you are, what you like, who you know, what you do, and your daily habits and interactions with others. Often, in-depth data collection and analysis can lead to things about you that you may not even know or realize. One example of this is the numerous ‘health’ apps and tracking devices that people use to monitor their exercise, food intake, and physical movement so the apps can track and analyse how the user may—or may not—be improving their health, and give them new, individually tailored advice on how they can do better. Aside from a small handful of exceptions, all this data is collected and stored by the hundreds of companies who provide those apps and tracking devices.