Living in a cave might be the only chance at regaining some privacy

Privacy is dead, a victim of our culture of sucking up all our personal data for using, selling, sharing and pouring into databases.

If you think you can escape by going off the grid, think again. You would have to give up an awful lot.

Mobile devices such as cell phones and tablets are the obvious first thing to go since not only the cell phone and service providers but also apps collect information about you. Social media networks are in the business of stashing your digital data. Your cell phone doesn’t even have to be in use as it pings cell towers that can be used to triangulate your location.

Use a landline? The phone company stores metadata, a record of who you called and who called you. This is available to the police with a warrant or to the government through the National Security Agency.

Your home computer also is a warehouse for your digital debris.

Your emails are stored by your email provider and your search engine has a record of which websites you have looked for, ready to be sold to companies to target you with ads. Forget about shopping online or applying for a credit card. Credit card companies know all about you and even having a credit rating is revealing — remember the Equifax hack.

A customer loyalty card from your supermarket will keep track of everything you buy there.

Buying an airline, train or bus ticket leaves a record of where you went and when.