Recently I’ve received more than my fair share of emails relating to my privacy and other businesses. This left me contemplative. I began to wonder what this data might look like in graph form. Given my proclivity for data and data interpretation I decided to quickly create a graph that I felt was truly representative of the situation as I have experienced in my inbox.

I recognize we are all unique and we each have different online habits and subscriptions, so your particular results may vary. Below is simply my estimation from personal experience, although I would believe it feels similar for many of you.

Clearly the situation has escalated in recent days and the result has been nothing less than an overwhelming sense of comfort knowing just how many businesses care about my privacy!

I will admit that some of the subject lines have been slightly intimidating or even threatening but I rest assured this is simply their extreme desire to see my privacy protected and sometimes that heartfelt desire can appear as a threat.

As a result of this wave of interest in personal privacy I realized as the recipient I also have an obligation in this situation. If others are so extremely dedicated to protecting and promoting my privacy and take the time to demonstrate this through a barrage of increasingly frequent emails, then it is not just my responsibility, but my duty to respond accordingly.

In order to put the minds of these many concerned businesses at ease and allow them the freedom to sleep in peace at night without the weight of worry over my personal privacy I am choosing to assume that responsibility myself and relieve them of that burden. I’d encourage you to do the same. Let us allow these businesses the opportunity to focus on improving their products and their businesses instead of how they manage our personal data. Let’s give them the freedom to move forward unencumbered without the albatross of our personal information hung around their necks.

Moving forward I will also be updating my own personal privacy policy and choose to be more selective and thoughtful about who receives my personal information. I will take responsibility for my own data and only provide meaningful interactions with those I trust are capable of sharing in that responsibility with me. I will begin this new updated privacy policy implementation at 12:01 tomorrow morning, conveniently enough this falls on Friday, May 25, 2018. Will you join me?

The preceding is my light-hearted response to the influx of emails received in the past 24 hours as “the deadline approaches”; in all seriousness this does present a significant opportunity to evaluate your sharing decisions and the implications of who receives your data — Think about it.