What social websites know about you

Facebook, Pinterest, Instagram, Snapchat, TikTok: we don’t think twice about creating an account on the newest trending social media platform because it’s free, unlike most of the other products we consume.

Unfortunately, we don’t think even once that — as a quote from Tim O’Reilly suggests —

“If you’re not paying for the product, you are the product”.

In addition to learning how to use social media, we should start knowing and questioning more about how web platforms utilize their products, that is, us, the users.

To better understand the ways in which users are exploited by social media, in the next paragraphs, I am going to unbox the user as if it was a product and dismantle the main components that make it a goldmine for tech companies.

Read the full article on https://nicholascaporusso.com/blog/en/movingforward/ep2-what-social-media-websites-know-about-you

Users bring data, that is, what platforms know about us. Many scenes from the Social dilemma suggest that the amount of information collected by social media and other types of online platforms is enough to generate accurate avatars that companies can use to control their users as digital puppets.

To understand if this is a true concern, we can start by enumerating the types of information we share with our favorite social media website. To this end, a report from Clario analyzed the data collected by digital platforms and ranked companies based on how much they know about us. Not surprisingly, Facebook and Instagram are in the lead, followed by many other popular applications, including Tinder, Uber, Airbnb, Amazon, Paypal, eBay, and Twitter.

However, as you will notice by taking a closer look at the ranking, some big names, such as YouTube, Google, and Microsoft, are missing from the picture. I am not completely sure it is because they rank lower: this would mean that they respect users’ anonymity more than other platforms do, which I think it’s not the case. Google knows our names and phone numbers, whereas I am not sure we would feel comfortable sharing them when creating an account on PornHub.

In addition to our demographic information, the greediest platforms know our interests, hobbies, religion, relationship status, mobile number, current and past employers, family members, and friends, among many other details. I challenge you to count the people you can list all the above characteristics of. Zero? Same here. This means that many websites know our friends, spouses, and children better than we do. Also, the report from Clario does not mention many important items, such as credit card and address information, which are required when completing a purchase online.

However, as Clario’s analysis is based on publicly available privacy policies, we could assume that there is enough transparency about the personal information being collected by tech companies. After the congress inquired the CEOs of Facebook and Google in response to the concerns raised by the Cambridge Analytica scandal and after the introduction of GDPR in the European Union, many websites have taken action: they notify users about the data being collected and require their express consent. We know what happens when we are served the privacy agreement details, but skipping without reading is our fault, and for the most part, we are given the ability to decide what to share and with whom.

It’s your choice: take action

On the Internet, you can find many websites and videos that contain suggestions on how you can achieve a healthier compromise as far as being utilized by social media. A great place to start is https://www.humanetech.com/take-control.

In general, I encourage using the dimensions mentioned in this article for adopting some form of book-keeping when visiting Facebook and similar websites: as each of us value their time, data, and work differently, you can make your own judgment about how to take control based on the value you attribute to each of the assets that you produce when you use social media.

Follow this publication and share your considerations

Many thanks for reading this article. If you enjoyed it or learned something, please, share it with your contacts and via social media. Also, remember to follow “Moving forward”: every two weeks, I publish a new episode where I share ideas, resources, and concepts that can help individuals and humanity move forward.

What are your thoughts on social media? Did we miss anything in considering user monetization strategies? I would love to hear from you: feel free to email me at [email protected] with your experiences.

More readings and resources

Netflix’s “The Social dilemma” is a thought-provoking documentary that explores the dark side of web platforms and specifically, social media.

The Social dilemma is available on Netflix (https://www.netflix.com/it-en/title/81254224) and its reviews on Rotten Tomatoes (https://www.rottentomatoes.com/m/the_social_dilemma) are pretty good. Check the trailer at https://youtu.be/uaaC57tcci0 and read more information on the official website (https://www.thesocialdilemma.com/).