What do big companies like Facebook know about you? – See here to find out

Hey guys! Thanks for engaging and commenting on my posts so far. I really appreciate it and hope you’ve all been well!

When I thought about this week’s topic: ethics, privacy and consumer data, the first thing that popped into my head was that viral video of Mark Zuckerberg “Explaining the internet” at the Zuckerberg-Senate meeting. And here’s the video if you haven’t seen it, it’s hilarious.

 

This event is relevent to this week’s topic because the meeting was held in response to Facebook unethically sharing the personal data of up to 87 million people with the British political consultancy Cambridge Analytica. This sparked questions for the entire internet sector on data protection and raised a lot of concerns from people everywhere. I mean, I got worried too – made me think about how much of my personal data they even have, and how many other companies might have the same kind of information about me.

So I did a little research and here’s a little unsettling list of things Facebook knows about us:

Mind Blown right? How shocking is this? But what’s even more shocking is how unconcerned some people are about their data being in Facebook’s hands.

I researched some more and here’s what I found:

Janrain’s Consumer Attitudes Toward Data Privacy Surveywas conducted online in April of 2018 where 1,051 US-based residents 18 years-old individuals were asked their thoughts on the scandal.

1. Are you aware of the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal?

2. Did the Facebook/Cambridge Analytica scandal change your opinion about sharing your personal data online?

 

42% of 1051 participants answered NO! Half of these young people do not mind their data out there and they feel neutral still. But let me tell you that not everything is put on the internet is being protected and can be used in some unethical and illegal ways.

1. You know when you’re on a website and they ask you to “accept” their usage of your web cookies? These cookies are used by advertising networks to track you across multiple websites. They then tailor what advertisements appear on your screen. This might sound quite alright to you but are you comfortable being tracked or monitored?
2. Apps like Uber and Google Maps track your location even when you’re not using the app – just imagine what would happen if this data was used for unethical purposes.

What are your thoughts? Share them with me in the comments below!