A fraction of a seemingly ordinary day. These are devices, tools and services you and I use daily, and many of these make our lives easier or amuse us. Under the hood however, this seemingly private moment is more public than we may think.

First, information was shared through direct interaction; Bob searching symptoms online. If he used Tor and a Virtual Private Network, his symptoms may have remained somewhat private. But who does that for semi-regular browsing anyway? He used the search box in Safari, on OS X Yosemite. When entering data in that search box, the query is first sent to Apple, and then to Google to actually perform the search. Google can use it later in advertisement on any site that displays Google Ads. Apple and Google now know about Bob’s symptoms, which could vary from a common cold to STD.

The second case of sharing information was done by Betty, although not deliberately. She looked up Westfield Road on Google Maps. Although that’s not very sensitive information, it does indicate a certain interest. If she had GPS tracking on all day, it’s very likely Google already knows she was there earlier that day, since she has a device running Android. Other than Google, many other apps may have gathered this information as well.

The third case is where Bob contacts Dave through WhatsApp — a private chatting application. Private, huh? WhatsApp is owned by Facebook, which is mostly financed through advertisements. It’s likely either Bob or Dave may have come across a seemingly coincidental advertisement on Facebook, advertising Minions on Netflix.

But it get’s worse! Bob’s Samsung Smart TV records audio, even when turned off, and sends recordings to a third party for voice recognition. Bob’s and Betty’s smart heating system knows when they go to work, when they get home, when they go on holiday. Everything that is somehow connected to the internet is a firehose leaking private information.