We all know that our internet search histories can be easily found, but did you know that it can actually be used for someone to follow your exact movements?
A video from 2011 shows just how much of a hold the internet has on all of us, as YouTuber Tom Scott takes just five minutes to dig out data on an unsuspecting victim, before calling him on his phone to let him know he has all his data.
In the video, which recently resurfaced on social media, Tom features his talk from Ignite London, detailing how having public social media handles on platforms like Facebook, LinkedIn, YouTube and Twitter can leave us open to having that data tapped into.
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The audience at the event might whoop and cheer, but it's actually a little bit terrifying to see how quickly Tom zones in one individual who has their Facebook profile as publically open.
He quickly discovers data from the profile including which football team they support, where they're from, possibly their mother's maiden name - and the scariest of all, he manages to find their mobile phone number and rings it live on stage.
The (not so) lucky recipient doesn't answer and it goes to voicemail, but still it's unsettling and we're not the only ones who think so.
As one person posted on Reddit: "This video has terrified me for a while. Don't worry, it's SFW, but very unsettling."
Basically, the YouTuber takes public data from Twitter profiles, Facebook, Instagram, and other sites to deduce this one guy's life, and then he calls him in front of hundreds of people.
One video sees Tom finds a poor tree surgeon's details, including his mobile phone number, and people have been left dumbfounded by how quickly this kind of information can be obtained.
One person commented: "'I know what you did five minutes ago'. Quietly deletes browser history."
And another added: "Imagine checking your voicemail and this dude spitting out your social security number".
While a third shared: "This actually is a scary way of showing how much the internet actually takes your security and throws it down the drain and out into the open like that."
This isn't the first time the internet has thrown up something that leaves us feeling a little bit weird.
Recently, the world discovered the 'most evil website on the internet' and it's not only impossible to leave but it comes with a warning to never visit it.
TikTok user @sp0uk_ , known as Spooky, has revealed the internet's most evil website - and explained why you should never visit it.
Spooky gave viewers a chilling disclaimer: "Please do not seek out these kinds of websites. They can destroy your computer, if not your mental sanity."
Despite the site being taken down, he urged people not to Google the site, as there are remnants of it lingering online.
He revealed: "The name of the website was womensalliance.xyz. And women's alliance was a classic bait-and-switch website."
A bait-and-switch website is basically a site pretending to be something that it's not. But for this site, it was pretending to be a feminist women's empowerment website when, obviously, it was not.
Topics: Technology, Social Media
Niamh Spence