DO YOU have a Facebook account? If you do, there’s a good chance that Facebook is gathering your private information and selling it to their clients. The recent debacle with Facebook proves what many internet privacy advocates have known for a very long time: Your private information on the internet is not private.
For those who don’t know, the short version of Facebook’s latest mess is this: Cambridge Analytica, a data consultancy firm, had gotten their hands on the private information of millions of Facebook users and used it to “influence” the results of Brexit and the 2016 US presidential election.
It’s debatable how much of Cambridge Analytica’s activities had actually influenced the Brexit referendum and the 2016 US presidential election, but what is certain is this: Facebook is gathering information from their users, and most likely selling them to various third parties.
The information gathering part is not a big deal. All websites gather information about their traffic in order to create more effective content. The big issue here is that the information that passed onto Cambridge Analytica came from private accounts, and private information is not something internet companies are allowed to release.
And this isn’t the first time this happened either. The selling and/or trading of private information has gone on for quite some time. Ever wonder why Google and Facebook’s services are free? It’s because their users are their products, and they sell these products to private and public entities.
Now, this doesn’t meant that you should abandon social media immediately. It does mean, however, that you shouldn’t take your online presence for granted. Someone is always watching – whether that someone is an analyst, a market researcher consultant or an algorithm designed to track your preferences. Someone or some other is watching you on the internet. That’s just how the age of information works. That’s just the price people pay to use social media and other “free” internet services.
Government and other entities use or partner with internet companies to track their populace, and at the same time, keep tabs on outsiders. If this sounds like spying to you, that’s because it is. A large part of modern espionage involves the internet, and as an internet user, you get to participate in the whole thing. Information is a commodity to be sold, bought, stolen and manipulated to suit various agendas.
Fortunately, there are tools to protect your internet presence. VPNs and other privacy software exist, but most people find them cumbersome and difficult to use. Other options include installing a TOR browser to mask some of my own activities, and if you want to avoid companies tracking your IP address, go out to your friendly internet cafe and pay $15 for an hour of anonymous browsing. They’re not fool proof, but they’re better than nothing.
As for Facebook, the company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg is expected to appear before a hearing over the leaks, but however this debacle will end, we can be certain that it won’t be the last, at least not until we have figured out a technology that can prevent this sort of thing from happening ever again.(jdr456@gmail.com/PN)
