Should Students Care About Their Internet Privacy? – The Rampage Online
Should Students Care About Their Internet Privacy? – The Rampage Online
Publish Date: 2026-05-21 17:52:00
Source Domain: www.therampageonline.com
Since the beginning of my middle school years, I have always done homework, taken exams, and checked grades online. This was also the time when having social media in my grade was a “must” for other students. A lot of people don’t think it’s a big issue, but there are so many ways our privacy is collected without us knowing.
There are reasons why you might have been talking about a restaurant you want to try out, or a specific situation you have going on out loud, and then suddenly you get that said content on your “for you page” even when you never searched it up.
Social media apps use an invisible tracker called “tracking pixels.” Tracking pixels listen in on what users do across other websites and devices.
Tracking pixels are small images that stay on our screens when we visit websites or even in our emails and track what we do.
The worry about our privacy and where our information went was never a major concern in my mind back then, but now it is definitely something all students should be cautious about.
We don’t think twice when it comes to the little things online; our browsers, like Google and Safari, are some of the biggest ones.
This past September of 2025, Google was ordered to pay $425 million in a privacy lawsuit for violating smartphone users’ privacy and data, even while collecting it when users had the Web & App Activity feature off. The feature allows users not to share their location with sites like Google or Safari. Google also collected over 100 million Android users’ data without their consent in a new settlement this May.
Students are always doing research, and Google is one of the most popular search engines, used by over 170 million schools and universities, which is a concerning amount considering that we don’t know what they are doing with that data or how they are using it.
Search engines are not the only ones taking data. Social media apps like TikTok, Instagram, and my beloved Source
