Maybe I should hold off on syncing, I thought. Maybe a little mindless Web surfing instead. So I fired up my browser and prepared to enter a query in my . But, before I could search for "used wooden highchair," I hesitated again. What if that search query was stored along with my location, and I was forever to be bombarded with ads for local baby supply stores?

Hmmm. Maybe I should just turn off the computer and leave my smartphone behind for the day, I thought.

Or maybe I should get a grip.

With all of the headlines about and online privacy violations, it's easy to live in fear. Fear that big companies like Apple and Google know too much about me and are somehow going to reveal my deepest, darkest secrets to the world. Or I could do some research and find out what kind of data these companies actually are collecting, and what they're doing with it. Because once you're informed, you'll find out that while some of the data- and location-collection practices might be a bit underhanded, but they're not as apocalyptic as some people might have us believe.