If you’re not worried about your personal information becoming big data, you should be.

Every day, almost everything you do online is being collected, sold to advertisers, and used to sell you products and services – and this information can come back to haunt you.

If you rely on search engines to get help when you have tough questions – about medical conditions, sexual orientation, hobbies that are misunderstood, or anything else you might want to keep a secret from your coworkers, friends, or family members – those searches can lead to inappropriate, embarrassing, and potentially devastating targeted advertisements being shown to you in front of others.

Services like Facebook can try to connect your virtual life and your real life through features like “People You May Know” – and what it may perceive as an innocuous suggestion can lead to unwelcome, unwanted interactions.

For example, think about every site you’ve logged into via your Facebook or Google account.

Your search history, browsing activity, and app usage on just those two accounts alone can span almost the entire internet – and their algorithms will use everything they have to target you.

If you’ve used dating apps, received confidential medical assistance, or do work that requires high levels of security, you could be endangering not only your career and relationships, but those of the people you’ve talked to as well.

It’s hard to have a real conversation on the internet when you know that you’re being watched. Users are more guarded and isolated than ever before, private lives are harder to keep private, and being forced to use real names on social networks makes people much more hesitant to share important – but possibly controversial – ideas.

Even if you’re just someone who loves playing online games, collecting toys, or writing a book – but you don’t want your coworkers or friends to know about it – you can be outed in 30 seconds – and no one has to do any detective work!

It all results in inauthentic, low stakes discussions and a limited exchange of important ideas. To make matters worse, service providers are turning your data into big bucks – and never giving a dollar of that money to you.

We need to create an online environment where people can be themselves and discuss controversial ideas, non-mainstream hobbies, and get support in complicated situations without consequence – and it’s within reach right now.

We need to create siloed space – places online that don’t collect behavioral data and serve as safe harbors – in which users can discuss ideas and grow without compromising their identity – or their integrity.

Facetts has created the first ever siloed, interest-based community tool. We at Facetts have made it possible to create communities that harvest no personal data, protect users through pseudonyms, and ensure that people have the protection they need to speak freely.