Vivid Zero
Your data is a business. You’re not a customer of it.
This is the quiet corner of the internet where we explain, in plain English, how your personal data is collected, traded and used, and what you can actually do about it. No scare tactics. No jargon. Nothing to buy. Just the information, verified and kept current.
- 01
How Companies Track You Across the Internet
Companies track you through a layered system: cookies on websites, invisible pixels in emails, fingerprinting techniques that need no cookie at all, code embedded inside mobile apps, and offline data from loyalty schemes. All of these data streams tend to flow toward a relatively small number of advertising technology firms who build profiles used to target adverts. The good news is that a handful of practical habits, combined with a few browser settings, genuinely reduce how much of this happens.
- 02
The Data Broker Economy: How Your Data Is Collected, Shared and Sold
Data brokers are companies that collect personal information from dozens of sources, combine it into detailed profiles, and sell those profiles to advertisers, insurers, employers and others. Most UK adults have never heard of them, yet have profiles with hundreds of data points. UK GDPR gives you the right to see, correct and request deletion of your data, though removing yourself from every broker is genuinely difficult and requires ongoing effort. This piece explains how the industry works and gives you practical steps to reduce your exposure.
- 03
Your Data on Social Media: What Each Platform Collects and How to Take Control
Every major social platform collects far more than the posts you make, including your behaviour off the app, your device details, and inferences about your personality and finances. UK GDPR gives you the right to download and inspect your own data file. A handful of settings on each platform, changed today, can meaningfully reduce what gets collected and how it's used for advertising. You don't have to leave social media to regain some control.