When I click on my cellphone to awaken it, I am perturbed by the advertising that pops up on the screen before I even type in my password.
It is annoying and now I know that every time I view a car rental, flight rental, or hotel rental, I can be assured that Expedia or Hotels.com or Trivago will continue to offer me deals up until the date that I looked at.
And I’m surprised that when looking at family photos on Facebook, advertising is becoming more common on the screen and often takes up more space than the postings of family.
Now we know why. Facebook has allow many companies–and even governments–to search their data.
Now when we create a Facebook account, we place a lot of interesting data in their system, such as our home addresses, our marital or dating status, our age, family members, and items we like.
Other applications ask for either a Facebook or Google sign-in password. That then allows Facebook or Google to increase your personal information in their systems.
If you make a purchase online, that also is included in your information so that Facebook or Google can send to you to make more opportunities to make purchases.
If you use a Google search engine to look at information about candidates in an election, that information is added to your file. That information, when used by companies like Cambridge Analytica, can change the results of an election.
We now have learned that Cambridge Analytica mined 87 million U.S. resident Facebook users, as well as thousands in Canada and European countries. Much of the information was used to influence voters–often with misinformation.
In our coming provincial election Ontario Facebook users again will be inundated with political information, often much of it misleading. In receiving the information, our “friends” also on the medium will receive that same information.
When we share the information, we may, in fact, be creating inaccuracies.
We all wish that social media had clear guidelines. While mainstream media such as television, radio, magazines, and newspapers are held to a very high standard for accuracy, social media is exempt.
What would be libelous in mainstream media receives a free ride on the internet.
Users can choose to disconnect from Facebook as co-founder of Apple, Steve Wozniak, did citing personal security concerns.
It might be a good example to follow.
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