The Gap
The Reality behind the scenes
This is the way social media works today
I register,
update my profile and upload photos,
add or follow some friends
generate content,
interact with other profiles.
I use Ads to expand my reach,
adapt to new policies and optimize my impact methods, and so on.
But in other words...
I become a client of a company that is going to do business with me,
give them access to my data and privacy to trade with it,
provide them with information on how and with whom I interact,
generate content for them to monetize it,
pay them to reach out more people,
and the company arbitrarily changes policies so that I spend more time, provide more information, and pay again, and so on and on…
Facebook-Cambridge Analytica Scandal
In 2018, it was revealed that the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica harvested personal data from tens of millions of Facebook users without their consent. The data was used to create targeted political advertisements during elections, raising serious privacy and ethical concerns. This incident highlighted the lack of adequate data protection measures and led to intense scrutiny of Facebook's practices.
Twitter Data Breach
In 2020, Twitter suffered a significant data breach where several high-profile accounts, including those of politicians and celebrities, were compromised. The attackers gained access to internal tools and used them to orchestrate a cryptocurrency scam, leading to unauthorized access to private user data. The incident exposed vulnerabilities in Twitter/'s security measures and raised questions about the safety of user data on the platform.
WhatsApp Privacy Policy Controversy:
In 2021, WhatsApp, a Facebook-owned messaging app, faced backlash after updating its privacy policy. The changes allowed WhatsApp to share user data with Facebook for targeted advertising purposes, prompting concerns about user privacy and data protection. The controversy led to a surge in users migrating to alternative messaging platforms that prioritize data security and privacy.
X (ex Twitter Controversy)
Year 2023, and Twitter has changed its brand from the Bird to the X. But in order to do so, they have arbitrarily and unilaterally decided to take out the user name @X from a user that was already (and legally) using it for himself. The user got merchandising as compensation for the corporate robbery. It shows us that even our usernames are not ours in actual Social Media platforms.
