Patriot Post Issue 1 September 2021

Social media stalks us all

Ellaheh Gohari | Co Print Editor-in-Chief pl236951@ahschool.com

Nearly a decade ago, CIA employee Edward Snowden risked his career, reputation and life to leak highly classified information that revealed the government was spying on us via technology and social media.

Yet, after all these years, virtually nothing has changed. Social media companies continue to spy on their users, collecting personal data to push relevant ads and predict our decisions before we even make them.

This breach of privacy has become so normalized in society that companies are not even bothering to hide it anymore. For example, TikTok’s privacy policy states that the app “may collect biometric identifiers and biometric information” including “faceprints and voiceprints.”

When asked why they needed such information, they did not comment. Similarly, Facebook, which also owns Instagram, acquired a patent from the U.S. government for “computer-vision content detection for sponsored stories.”

According to AI tech consultant Asif Razzaq, this means if you took a picture of something, the AI system can scan it, determine what the image is of and later push sponsored stories on your feed that sell it or something similar.

This is very concerning. Sure, doomsday movies where AI becomes all powerful and wipes out the human race are not true (yet), but that doesn’t mean we should let these methods of data collection become so normalized that we sacrifice our privacy and prerogative.

Our data can be weaponized and used against us, sometimes with cataclysmic effects.

According to U.S. Intelligence, foreign governments, particularly Russia, attempted to influence the 2016 and 2020 presidential election via social media.

Russian agents created thousands of false profiles and tried to persuade users on the fence about the election to vote for Donald Trump.

NOT-SO-SOCIAL-MEDIA: Social media can be addictive, taking up time and promoting pseudo-social interaction through a screen. Companies such as Facebook, TikTok and Twitter collect users’ data and sell it to third party vendors. These vendors target ads and have the potential to manipulate someone’s thoughts, as seen by the Cambridge Analytica scandal which affected elections in multiple countries.

(Photo/Nithisha Makesh)

This data targeting is not unique to America; Cambridge Analytica, a British political consulting firm, collected and used close to 50 million people’s personal Facebook data in order to push ads convincing undecided voters to vote to leave the European Union.

“Facebook is no longer just a company, I told them. It’s a doorway into the minds of the American people, and Mark Zuckerberg left that door wide open for Cambridge Analytica, the Russians and who knows how many others. Facebook is a monopoly, but its behavior is more than a regulatory issue -- it’s a threat to national security.

- Christopher Wylie, former employee turned whistleblower of Cambridge Analytica

At least for now, whether we like it or not, corporations and the government will continue to try to spy on us. However, there are ways to make it harder for them.

By reading the terms of service of every app instead of simply clicking “I agree,” you can make a more educated judgment on whether sharing your data is necessary.

Also, if you have a social media account and post everything about your life, it’s easier for companies to track you. Rethink how much you share, and don’t take your privacy for granted.