Social Media: Spying and Selling

Is privacy really there anymore?

Every day people are giving away private information to companies without even realizing it. Every time you create an account and fill out forms with your personal information you are losing your privacy. Once you post an image you no longer own it and you are giving away information about where you have been and what you do. Most social media and applications require you to accept the terms and conditions and when you do that, you lose all your privacy.

Do you ever talk about something or google something randomly and then start to get ads for those things? That is because when you use a google account or any of your social media accounts they basically keep tabs of things you look up and create an algorithm that is personalized to promote things that you might be interested in. How do these companies know what to market to you? That is because big monopoly companies sell their information on you to help other companies know who to market. 

Not only is our privacy gone on social media and the internet, but it is also gone due to license plate trackers around the country. Photos are taken without cause and in locations that should be private, like your own home. New technologies are going to continue to be used through the years and our privacy will only continue to diminish. 

Many times before, I have been talking to a friend about a cute place to shop or what to do this weekend, and minutes later I am getting ads on my social media accounts. I know sometimes it can be beneficial for my parents when shopping because in the ad it will give them a promotion or discount code that makes something they weren't sure about getting worth buying. While it is creepy that people are tracking your information and selling it for their own profit making the information easier to steal, it does have its benefits. A good way to still get the benefits without using your real information is through making a fake account with all fake information. That way when you are talking and it is keeping track of your searches you still get the benefits of the discounts and easy shopping but without your real information being at stake. 

Right now the government does not have many regulations on social media and search engines, allowing them to make terms and services that do not have many loopholes or protections for the consumers. As time continues on, new laws and regulations need to be made to fit the inventions and new ideas. Other than making a fake account to protect your privacy, you can use these social media and search engines as a guest so they can't keep track or place any search to a name, even if it is a fake one. By making sure all accounts are private, your social media can be more protected than it was. In today's society, the only way to protect yourself seems to be through creating a false account and creating a false identity.