In the spirit of halloween I decided to have a little fun with my blog this week. Today im going to take you to the dark side of social media... Privacy violations.
So here I am. Naive little me. Enjoying all my social media accounts. Posting pictures of last night's halloween party on instagram. Checkin-in on Facebook. When I notice the perfect advertisement "Heels under $20" on justfab . Don't believe me? heres a screen shot of my Facebook:
But how did you know Facebook? How did you know I was in need of the perfect heels for my costume. Contrary to my initial beliefs Facebook is actually not a crazy old witch looking through a magic ball that shows her whats going on inside my head. Facebook just knows how to keep tabs on you (literately). all those ads on the sites you visit seem to be a perfect match to your interests is no coincidence. advertisers will do just about anything the online environment allows them to do – even if it means breaking your online privacy – to develop new ways to promote products. And the easiest way for them to find out your likes and habits is keeping a close eye on your social media behavior.But how did you know Facebook? How did you know I was in need of the perfect heels for my costume. Contrary to my initial beliefs Facebook is actually not a crazy old witch looking through a magic ball that shows her whats going on inside my head. Facebook just knows how to keep tabs on you (literately). all those ads on the sites you visit seem to be a perfect match to your interests is no coincidence. advertisers will do just about anything the online environment allows them to do – even if it means breaking your online privacy – to develop new ways to promote products. And the easiest way for them to find out your likes and habits is keeping a close eye on your social media behavior.
There are multiple ways advertisers can invade your social media privacy. they take advantage of your data and make you a target for their ads. Here are the most common ones:
Data Scraping
It involves tracking people’s activities online and gathering personal data and conversations from social media and other online forums. Usually, research companies are those who gather your info, they sell the compiled data to other companies. They utilize these details to design targeted ad campaigns for their products. While one might argue that people are knowingly sharing personal details on social media and thus, it’s free for everyone’s use. However, data harvesters don’t ask for the owner’s consent, this raises an ethics as well as an online privacy problem. Take the case of Nielsen Company as an example. They were caught scraping data from "Patients Like Me" online forums. These forums are used by people to talk about their emotional problems in what they though was a safe and private environment. Doesn't seem so ethic now does it?
Facebook apps leaking personal data.
It has been reported several times that certain Facebook apps are leaking personal information about those who are using them. The info is told to me sent to advertising and Internet tracking companies. Of course the unfortunate app users have no clue about what is going on. So here’s how the leakage works: during the app’s installation process, you are prompted to accept certain terms, and once you select “Allow”, the application then receives an green light ! However, no disclaimer is showed announcing you your data is being transferred to third parties. Thus your online privacy and safety are put at risk. some of the apps that have been found to leak identifying information include FarmVille and Family Tree.
That "LIKE" is tracking you.
We all use the “Like”, “Tweet” or “+1” buttons to share content with our online friends. However, these are not as harmless as they seem to be. They work with cookies wich are small files stored on your computer that enables companies to track users across different sites. The cookies are placed in browsers when you create an account or log in, and together they allow the social websites to recognize you on any site that uses these widgets. Therefore, your interests or online shopping can be easily tracked, and your internet privacy rudely invaded.
Well now you know, so beware of the dangerous online privacy violations under that sweet surface most social media sites provide.
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