Every personal detail you hand out is a coin someone else gets to spend.

Information about you has value to other people, whatever it feels like when you hand it over. A birthday, a school, a pet’s name, where you were last weekend: individually small, together enough to guess a password, open an account or find you. Nobody has to intend harm for the collection to be useful to someone.

Answer fewer of the small questions that forms and quizzes ask, since most of them are not required. Think of each detail as spendable and decide whether this exchange is worth it. Being slightly less complete online costs you almost nothing you will miss.