Your Data Is Power — Even Your Search History

We live in a world where data is power. Companies know it. Governments know it. And honestly, you should know it too.

One of the big goals for modern companies is to combine your data across different sources to learn as much about you as possible. That's where the power comes from — insights at scale.

Take Meta (Facebook, Instagram, WhatsApp) for example. Because they own multiple platforms, they have access to your interactions, your likes, your friends, even your moods. That level of control can influence your views — and maybe even your identity.

Off topic - Content Bubbles Are Real

I've got a theory: people, especially younger ones, are developing stronger, more polarized views because of social media. Platforms push content they know you'll agree with, because that keeps you scrolling. But if you're just consuming what's served to you, you're not getting a diverse range of content and perspectives so your opinions only get stronger in one direction.

This means when you finally stumble across a challenging view or a different perspective, its unusual and feels like a personal attack. It can be jarring, and makes it harder to have open discussions. This causes emotional reactions instead of rational discussions.

We need to seek out opposing views and research, not just passively consume what's served to us.

Even Duolingo Wants Your Data

Yep. Even your favorite owl is doing it.

Duolingo's free tier lets you translate real-world sentences — and those translations have been sold to businesses in the past. You're not just learning Spanish; you're doing crowd-sourced work. Here's a Forbes article that dives into this.

Track Yourself - Start with Safari History

Want to see what your own data looks like? A good place to start is your Safari search history.

I use Safari profiles to separate different contexts (work, personal, etc.), so I wanted a way to pull the history from all of them. Turns out, it's surprisingly easy on macOS.

Step 1: Find Your Safari Profiles

ls ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/Profiles/

You'll see a list of folders with GUIDs. Each one is a profile.

Step 2: Locate the History DB

The history for each profile lives here:

~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/Profiles/<PROFILE_GUID>/History.db

Step 3: Query the History with SQLite

macOS ships with sqlite3, so you can extract the data with:

sqlite3 ~/Library/Containers/com.apple.Safari/Data/Library/Safari/Profiles/<PROFILE_GUID>/History.db "SELECT datetime(visit_time + 978307200, 'unixepoch', 'localtime') AS visit_date, url FROM history_visits INNER JOIN history_items ON history_items.id = history_visits.history_item ORDER BY visit_date DESC;" > profile_history.txt

⚠️ Important: You'll need to give your terminal Full Disk Access in System Settings.

Script - Export to Markdown ready for an LLM

I whipped up a little shell script to extract Safari history across all profiles. You can grab it here:

👉 View on GitHub Gist

I've been using it to help jog my memory when filling in timesheets — super handy when you've forgotten what you did last Tuesday.

Final Thought

If data is power, knowing your own data is your power. Don't just hand it over blindly. Understand what you're giving up, and use tools to take some of that power back 🔋

The more we understand about our digital footprints, the better equipped we are to make informed decisions about our privacy and digital lives.