The online world is exposed by default. It does not differentiate between what we want to keep as public, private or secret. Our identity and data have 'market value'. This creates a conflicting situation between businesses that target consumer data and people (consumers) who want to protect it.
As a user of multiple websites and apps, it is easy for your identity, profile and data to be widely published, with your knowledge or not. If any of your personally identifiable data exists somewhere, be certain it is available for someone to dig out with little difficulty. Think of the never-ending promotional messages and unsolicited marketing calls we get daily. Where do they get our contact details from? All that is needed is just one personal data to get the rest. It could be just an email id or a mobile number.
If you are not a customer, then you are the product. This is because there is no free lunch. Have you wondered why so many online services are available for free? Most rely primarily on advertising revenue which they get by using your data. We often know this but do not care much because of the free services we get. For online socialising this may be ok, but if you happen to disclose personal information, be careful. Once something goes online, it is extremely difficult to get rid of it as it may have already exchanged many hands.
Identity theft, misuse and abuse have existed for enough time. Pre 'app age', things were much simpler and controlled with limited 'hack opportunities'. Thanks to our big move to a predominantly online life now, invasion of privacy has accelerated full throttle in numerous forms and shapes. Each year millions of user data records get compromised. Businesses spend a fortune in data security measures to protect their own data and that of their customers. Governments are framing new privacy laws every day. There is no line of sight for any of this to reduce in future. The only option we have is to be aware, concious and careful with our data.
Your financial, health, business and personal data, including the most confidential ids and passwords, will remain vulnerable unless you conciously take steps to protect them. One simple way is to ensure you do not give your data at random merely to experience a new app or product. Secondly, it is important that you become more aware of the importance of privacy in general and your own vulnerability in particular. In short, the only person that can help you is YOU. It is only you who should decide what is public, private and secret for you at any given time. Then make sure to choose the apps that honor that. Check your vulnerability here!