The internet, especially social media, is a highly complicated contested terrain that can bring a lot of unwanted noise if not used wisely. Since I became aware of the storage of data by different online platforms, I have always been careful of the information I share on social media.
Because the terms of service differ across platforms, my precaution is simply not to publish any sensitive information online. For example, I would not perform transactions involving credit card information through social media platforms such as Facebook, and would certainly never have my credit card saved anywhere that might be accessed, or even hacked, by others. This might mean a little more work for those like myself who do a lot of online shopping, but I think it is better to be safe than sorry.
Even though Facebook does obtain a humungous amount of data about more than two billion people using it, the social media platform claims in its Terms of Service that “[w]e don’t sell your personal data to advertisers, and we don’t share information that directly identifies you (such as your name, email address or other contact information) with advertisers unless you give us specific permission.” The site generates revenue by showing users ads that identify with their interests, calculated from the information Facebook has about them. Facebook runs ads and gives advertisers reports, thus acting as an intermediary.
This is where it becomes tricky. Although users are ensured that their information is not being sold to other companies, Facebook is still one large corporation that knows almost everything about its users. Among the data Facebook obtains about me, one file I find rather intriguing is that Facebook also knows all or almost all the sites I visited off of Facebook and the specific date and time of those visits. It is strange because I do not use my Facebook account to log into most of these websites.
Do users have any control over their information online? According to Facebook’s Data Policy, users have the ability to “access, rectify, port and erase” their data and delete their accounts, which means removing their data, from the site whenever they wish to. Moreover, also in the Terms of Service cited above, users are said to have control over the type of ads and advertisers they see, and the type of information Facebook uses to determine which ads to show them.
However, despite Facebook’s efforts to be transparent, these users’ rights still seem very much weak and vague. For example, even after users permanently deleting their account, while their information can no longer be seen by other users, copies of their information will remain to be accessed by Facebook in backup storage. The purpose of this is supposedly for Facebook to “recover in the event of a disaster, software error, or other data loss event,” or “for things like legal issues, terms violations, or harm prevention efforts.” This explanation from Facebook is far from the transparency its billions of users deserve.
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