My friend once dated this boy (we’ll call him “Charlie”), who, in mild terms, was a little obsessed with her. Somehow, he happened to know her favorite foods, colors, and frequented stores without her directly telling him. And when she eventually broke up with him (thank goodness), he would often pop up at her favorite restaurant, drop off her favorite flowers, and diligently keep tabs on her. Charlie was, in simplest terms, so creepy; no one could pinpoint how he was so involved in her life or where he got his information from. Charlie is not exactly the type of significant other you want in your life, but it may surprise you to know that if you use social media platforms, you have your own Charlie – he goes by the name of “Facebook”.
Facebook has been criticized for their privacy policy (or lack thereof) numerous times in recent years. This is because, covertly imbedded in the “Terms and Conditions” page you skimmed (or, if you’re like me, scrolled past) while signing up, Facebook admits to tracking you. Like Charlie, Facebook knows you. In a creepy way. Within their privacy policy, Facebook admits to collecting and processing all of the following:
- data you publish – like the location of a picture you post, or the date of an update
- the features and content you use – tracking things like the type of content you engage with most, as well as the “time, frequency and duration” of your activities, and the content you click on
- your purchases – including any transaction made on one of their platforms (including Instagram)
- other people’s interaction and communication about you – which includes messages, your contact information, and pictures posted of you
- device information – assessing things like what devices you use, what Facebook platforms you use on which devices (for the purpose of better targeted ads), and what device you used if you took an action in response to an ad
- network and connections – what ISP you use, what mobile carrier you use, time zone, mobile phone number, connection speed, and other detection of devices that are nearby or on your network
- Cookie data – data collected by cookies on your device
- information from partners – including information off of facebook, given to them by advertisers, developers, and publishers; detailing things like websites you visit, purchases you make, ads you see, and much more.
You might be thinking, Wow. That’s a lot of information. And yes, it is. An article studied in class by the Guardian highlights just how much information Facebook collects on an individual basis, as it details how Facebook admitted to advertisers that it can identify when teenagers feel “insecure”, “worthless” and in need of “a confidence boost” based upon the collection of such information. This is a whole new level of information collection – the fact that emotional states can be inferred by Facebook goes beyond general characteristics. At this point, it is clear that Facebook has deep information on its users, and, in essence, knows us. While the wealth of information Facebook stores about its users is certainly cause for alarm (who wants Mark Zuckerberg knowing their deepest thoughts?), how Facebook uses this information is, in my view, both helpful and concerning. As detailed in their privacy policy, Facebook uses our information for:
- location-related information – to suggest local restaurants, stores, etc. through personalized ads
- face recognition – to identify you in photos, videos and more
- advertisement – using specified content to promote certain products or ideas through targeted ads
- research and measurement of ad efficiency – distributing information to companies for the assessment of the effectiveness of certain ads
- safety – using information for the verification of accounts
- communication with you
- research on social patterns
While some of these uses have positives, there are also a lot of negative ways our information is being used. For instance, political targeting through Facebook is becoming an increasingly prevalent issue and may bias elections through the covert persuasion of targeted ads. However, targeted ads could also be a good thing, by showing us products relevant to our situations. Researching Facebook’s privacy policy led me to wonder how many people actually know that Facebook collects and uses all this information. I knew that I was not aware of its heavy monitoring. In order to better understand the average person’s knowledge of Facebook’s monitoring, I interviewed a friend of mine named Lindsay (see below).
Interview with Lindsay – Her View on Facebook’s Privacy Policy
It became clear throughout the interview that Lindsay was not familiar with Facebook’s privacy policy, as I would guess is true for most people. However, due to the great individual intrusion of privacy inherent in collection of consumer data, I think it is increasingly important for the public to be aware of Facebook’s oversight. Yet, this was not the only interesting thing I learned from interviewing Lindsay. Contrary to my view, Lindsay expressed that Facebook’s great accumulation of information on its users does not bother her too much. In fact, she often finds Facebook’s targeted ads helpful, mentioning that she does not have anything to hide and therefore does not find Facebook’s monitoring too worrisome. However, Lindsay did include that she could see the problems inherent in the extensive monitoring Facebook performs. She mentioned that political ads could certainly sway voters to more extreme views and bias elections, thereby expressing some discontent with Facebook’s privacy policy.
I found it interesting that Lindsay seemed to be in favor of Facebook’s monitoring, and found myself wondering if this stance was related to her age. At 18 years old, Lindsay (and myself, for that matter), grew up surrounded by technology. Constantly bombarded by information, it likely does not surprise her that the websites she uses and platforms she engages with collect information on her. Similarly, while I find Facebook’s oversight rather intrusive, I cannot say I am surprised to learn that Facebook collects extensive information for less than pure purposes. Thus, this invasion of privacy may have become regular and routine in our generation, resulting in a lack of concern for Facebook’s monitoring. However, I would be curious to discover if older generations find Facebook’s privacy policy more disagreeable.
For those that find such privacy policies intrusive, there are some steps you can take to protect your information. While browsing, make sure to use a private browser (DuckDuckGo is a good one) that will not track your clicks and viewed content. This should help maintain some online anonymity. However, it will not prevent you from being associated with your account of Facebook. If you simply cannot extricate yourself from Facebook and social media (I get it – I’m still on it too!), I implore you to be mindful of what you put out and what information you give Facebook. It is difficult to completely shield yourself from Facebook’s obsessive surveillance, but by being aware of what Facebook could know about you, there is some protection in place.
No one wants a Charlie – but, sometimes, we get stuck with him. Whether we like it or not, the digital world is tracking and monitoring you like an obsessive high school boyfriend that just can’t quite get over you yet. At the very least, fill others in on Charlie’s creepiness, and make the public aware of Facebook’s (and other digital services) intensive monitoring so that they too can protect themselves appropriately.
Work Cited:
- Levin, Sam. “Facebook Told Advertisers It Can Identify Teens Feeling ‘insecure’ and ‘Worthless.’” The Guardian, 1 May 2017. www.theguardian.com, http://www.theguardian.com/technology/2017/may/01/facebook-advertising-data-insecure-teens.