8 Gadgets You Own That Are Already Watching You

Watch your back?and your Internet connection, and your in-car navigation system. We're living in an age of heavy monitoring: The insurance companies know where you drive, Google tracks every site you visit, and that smartphone in your pocket? And in most cases, these eight gadgets and services track your activities and record data about you without your knowledge. We've included some tips (in some cases) to turn off the tracking and go private. By John Brandon

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Computer

Perhaps the worst of offender of all is your computer. Silently humming away beside your desk, a computer is an agent of personal tracking: When you sign up for Gmail, you agree to let Google read your email and display relevant ads. When you log in, your Google account starts tracking every website you visit. You have to click an option to enable it, but most people just agree to these options without thinking about it.

Your PC also transmits your IP address when you visit a website. That's why you might see an ad for an item in your own hometown. (The ad networks read your IP address, looked up your ISP, and fed you the localized ad all in a split second.)

And via the Internet, and especially social networking, we're all just giving our information away. Facebook knows your address, and when you announce on Twitter that you're leaving for vacation, you're telling every criminal in the world to rob your house.

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