Complete manual/44/en

Companies collect it in order to analyse your behavior and habits in order to sell you products and services, as well as to make what they sell you ‘better’. They also sell their data and analysis about you to other companies—and even governments—for profit. As we saw from the Snowden documents, governments want access to as much data about you as they can get, even if it means breaking national and international laws. Governments want this same level of total access in order to control and manage societies, which can include targeting marginalized groups, censoring media and online activity, or even trying to 'wall' their country off from the rest of the online world. Individuals may want this information to spy on, harass, or blackmail family members, spouses, ex-partners or simply people whose life style they disagree with. Some individuals and independent networks may also want to steal it from companies and governments so they can sell financial information for profit, or add to their profiles on certain individuals and groups they are interested in.