You and the world post 1

My project is about how technology can violate your privacy. I was inspired to do this project by a documentary called “The Social Dilemma” it informed me on how much personal information websites and social media like Google, Facebook, and Instagram really collect. This inspired me to do my own research and now I want to share it with the rest of my class because I think it is important for people to know what they sign up for when they accept the terms of service.

This issue personally affects me and anyone else that uses social media. I as well as most people value privacy and don’t want a huge tech company to know absolutely everything about us. But don’t take just my word for it. I have multiple credible sources that also say social media invades your privacy and you don’t even know it. My first source is an article written by Aliza Vigderman from security.org website made by people with law enforcement and security backgrounds. In this article Aliza grades popular websites and social media on how well your privacy is protected using it. Google receives an F, they store your address, cell phone contacts, and use algorithms to determine which ads would be most likely to make you buy something.

After reading this I wanted to know what other companies kept a lot of data on us. It turns out all social media do. Especially Facebook, they record every post you like, page you visit, and every comment you write. Facebook then uses an algorithm to build an image of you. They want to know all of these things about you to target ads to you. Which might not be so bad if Facebook wasn’t so irresponsible with all of their data. Facebook has been constantly accused of selling your data to third parties. In fact, Reporter Aleksandr Kogan from Cambridge university was able to easily obtain the information of 270,000 Facebook users. Facebook even uses its users’ data as a bargaining chip. Companies favored by Facebook were given access to user data to better target ads and make more money. Companies Facebook does not like on the other hand we denied user data.

In my opinion, neither should be able to just look at our information especially since People have consented to give Facebook information not a bunch of other companies that make Facebook money. Facebook gets away with this because most people don’t actually read their terms in service. During my research, I took the time to read what’s in it, and you would be surprised what you consent to when you use Facebook, It is a lot of information. They do give you the option to limit the type of data they collect, but it’s buried in the setting. So you won’t be able to find it unless you know what you’re looking for.

In 2019 congress passed about a bill that would establish privacy requirements for social media sites Called the online privacy act. Though it was passed I don’t see any difference that has been made by the bill. I think if this bill is enforced better. This problem could become smaller.

Link to annotated bibliography and Sources: https://drive.google.com/file/d/1yUTY_RQk9wWFZdp49LA-jQ88-rL2msiC/view?usp=sharing