As online shopping becomes more convenient, it also exposes consumers to hidden privacy risks.
While you enjoy a seamless shopping experience, your online activities are being tracked, often without your knowledge.
According to Stepan Solovev, CEO and co-founder of Soax, “Most internet users remain blissfully unaware of the vast data trails they leave behind them.”
Online shopping has improved convenience but has taken a darker edge with increased tracking. The online retailers log everything from your browsing habits down to a record of all of your purchases. This opens up huge privacy and security issues that customers are oblivious to.
Are You Being Tracked?
Data shows that 90% of online shoppers are being tracked. Research into customer online shopping behavior for 2020 trends has indicated that as many as 90% of online shoppers are tracked without knowledge.
Data is tracked from various sources, including cookies, web trackers, and third-party partnerships. This information is used for targeted advertising and personalized recommendations and is sometimes resold to other businesses.
To give it a number, over 3 billion people bought something online in 2020, with around 2.7 billion of their shopping habits tracked in detail.
This tracking behind your back includes everything from your search queries to how much time you spend on a website, through which one can draw an elaborate picture of consumer behavior patterns.
How Online Shopping Can Make Hackers Track You
With this convenience of e-shopping comes a great deal of cybersecurity risk. Usually, hackers take advantage of vulnerabilities in various e-commerce platforms and trace users to steal sensitive information.
Aura’s data has revealed that cybercriminals use different ways, which include but are not limited to the following:
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Phishing: Bogus emails or pop-up advertisements deceive users into delivering personal information or clicking on links to download malware. These phishing schemes are so legitimate that even aware shoppers will find it hard to tell them apart from actual communications.
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Malware and Spyware: When hackers embed malicious software within seemingly harmless downloads, keyloggers capture passwords, and tracking software may capture browsing history. How?
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Man-in-the-Middle Attack: When making purchases on unsecured networks, hackers can intercept data transmissions. It primarily happens through open public Wi-Fi, whereby attackers place themselves between the user and the website and then capture all data transmitted.
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Data Breaches: Even genuine e-commerce websites may be vulnerable to data breaches. By using security loopholes, hackers gain access to user databases, acquiring sensitive information such as credit card information and home addresses.
Key Takeaways
Online tracking is everywhere, and it is estimated that nearly 90% of users are unaware of personal data collection.
The more invisible the surveillance keeps going, the more one opens the door for a hacker. It is essential to make people aware of the online tracking mechanism and what tactics cybercrimes use to maintain digital security.
