Privacy is really -and only- what you say or do within your own home with the shades down that is (generally legal) and between you and your love-ones that is not being communicated, recorded, broadcasted or reproduced in any way online or in a public forum.

In the past 5 years we have learned that everything from the websites we visit, the apps we download, the social networks we belong to, and the mobile phones we carry, pretty much know everything about us down to the text messages we send and receive.

Privacy is a very hot topic and probably one of the most misunderstood since the turn of the century. Over the past decade a battle has been fought by three very distinctive groups and they are as follows:

#1 Privacy advocates: These are your everyday well meaning and well informed people all the way up to privacy professionals who, day in and day out preach the absolutes of privacy and why we need it. They are evangelists of the issues and tell anyone and everyone the importance of privacy whether they want to hear it or not.

#2 Sales, marketers, advertisers, SMB and big business who stand to gain from knowing every last details about what you like, don’t like, who your friends are, your income, and basically your over all demographics defined in 33 bits of data. They offer us all the free stuff we can consume online and build communities that tie us all together. They track us and sell our data and sell advertising targeted directly at you.

#3 The Cattle: These are your everyday people that just go with the herd and aren’t all that concerned about privacy but might care just a little bit. They are more concerned about living happily ever after with as little friction as possible. Ultimately they want to use all the services and websites we have today and don’t want to pay for them if they don’t have to.

Most people are in the herd, which is why privacy is becoming a very different ideal today than it was a decade ago. It’s perfectly OK to fight for your privacy and insist on it by those you do business with. But know that it’s often the decisions and choices we make, (like checking a little ‘I agree’ box) which is why we are where we are today.

Robert Siciliano personal and home security specialist to Home Security Source discussing identity theft on YouTube.