I have a thing about privacy. I expect it to be respected.

To me, digital marketers are parasites who attack me, strip away my data, sell it for profit and treat me like a host to be fed on.

I see most social media platforms as sources of infection, designed to spread place my data and yours in the hands of people who will do anything to maintain their own wealth and power.

So the only social media site I take part in is BookLikes. It’s a slightly nerdy but very friendly corner of the Internet where people addicted to books meet to enable each other.

Yet today, I’ve had to spend an hour clearing out bogus followers who set up accounts either to have access to my data or to sell me things.

In today’s bunch, in addition to the usual offers to gift me with a sexual potency that will astound my partner or for plumbing services on other continents, I got hit by Keto zealots. Think of them as the Scientoligists of nutrition, they prey on the vulnerable in the same way but, instead of taking all your money, they fill you with fat and ruin your health.

Removing them is just something I do to channel my wrath. They’re like the anglers of data. The ones I worry about are the deep-sea trawlers of data who consume everything I post anywhere and process it without me ever knowing they’re there.

Still, I’ll be staying on BookLikes because I enjoy it. I won’t let digital pirates stop that.