Privacy wasn’t a concern for her until it was too late.

The woman, who agreed to share her story if she weren’t to be identified, told me she left home one midnight, after four years in a relationship. She moved away and restarted her life. But then, she says, she was bombarded by phone calls from men soliciting her for sex. Then came bizarre friend requests on social media. She says one man showed up at her house.

She suspected her ex of stalking her online, and posting her information to fuel harassment. “It is psychological torture,” she told me.

She turned to a domestic-violence shelter for technical and legal help, including working with Verizon in an effort to unmask some of the phone numbers she’d logged as harassing, and helping her file for her state’s “Safe at Home” status, which would shield her address from public records.

Her nightmare, which is ongoing, might not resemble your life or mine. But it’s a stark reminder that erosion of privacy is a cancer of digital life. And while we might not talk about privacy as often as the latest cool app, it’s only getting worse.