From local ISPs to giants like Google, how likely is it that our personal data will be leaked to the public?

Honestly, the chances are way higher than most people think, and it's pretty scary when you look at how much stuff we have floating around online. Whether it's your local isp or a huge tech company, they all have databases that are basically honey pots for hackers. I've seen enough server logs and security breaches over the years to know that no system is truly unhackable. It’s usually not a matter of "if" but "when" someone gets their hands on at least some of your metadata.

The issue is that these big guys hold onto so much data for ad targeting and analytics that it’s impossible to keep everything airtight. Even if they have top-tier encryption, it just takes one misconfigured server or a leaked employee credential to expose millions of accounts. I try to limit my digital footprint as much as I can, but even then, it feels like I'm just playing a losing game because we're forced to use their services for basically everything these days.

I wouldn't lose sleep over every single byte of info getting out, but you definitely have to assume that your email or basic profile details might end up in a public dump at some point. Using a password manager and enabling 2fa everywhere is pretty much the only way to keep your sanity. Don't trust them to keep your secrets safe; assume your data is already out there and just focus on keeping your accounts locked down so it doesn't ruin your life.