The Real Users Don’t Have a Profile
Facebook knows us: where we shop, where we eat, what we like, what we don’t like. As soon as we sign the user contract, we agree to this. We know that Facebook collects our data, but what do they use it for?
Facebook makes its money through ads, that’s why the app is free to users. Facebook claims to never sell user data to advertisers; instead, they pair user information with demographics selected by advertisers. For example, an advertiser could tell Facebook that they want to target females aged 16–20 interested in online shopping, then Facebook would find users who match that target demographic. This seems legal enough.
But after Cambridge Analytica, when user information from Facebook was unethically obtained, interfering with the 2016 election, can we really trust that our data is being used as promised?
In 2019, Germany’s antitrust watchdog group accused Facebook of gathering data from the other apps it owns, Instagram and WhatsApp. Facebook was gathering user data without explicit consent from it’s other apps to “merge” information and target more ads.
Since the implementation of the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) in 2018, all of Europe has begun placing tougher restrictions on how Facebook, among other companies like Amazon and Google, collects data. They’ve also required more transparency to users about the data collection process: what data has been collected, what that data will be used for, ect.
Despite Facebook’s wrongdoings, users won’t leave. As described in The Antitrust Case Against Facebook, “Consumers effectively face a singular choice, use Facebook and submit to the quality and stipulations of Facebook’s product or forgo all use of the only social network used by most of their friends, family, and acquaintances”.
We can’t expect users to make that choice, so we have to keep users safe. The U.S. should follow after Europe with similar restrictions. As of now, there are virtually no restrictions; in December, legislation was drafted which would restrict user monitoring, but it has yet to be passed. This legislation isn’t as comprehensive as the GDPR in Europe, still leaving users exposed to many unethical tactics.
Facebook has proven time and time again that its users are only a means to an end, a tool to make them profit. We may all joke about the creepiness of Facebook’s monitoring, how it seems to give us ads we’ve only thought about, how it seems to know exactly what we want, but it’s time to take Facebook’s tactics very seriously, not just for our individual sakes, but for the sake of our country. We live in such a polarized society that another Cambridge Analytica-like scandal could have dangerous ramifications, forever changing the way we vote and giving Facebook more power than ever before.
