Facebook does what it wants with personal data and manipulates your behavior

2024 Author: Malcolm Clapton | [email protected]. Last modified: 2023-12-17 03:44

In February 2017, Vicky Boykis, a data scientist, accused Facebook of neglecting personal information and using it to manipulate users. Lifehacker retells the main theses of the research.

Research methodology

The wiki uses a lot of links to technical industry articles, academic publications, and interviews with former Facebook employees. He also brings his user experience, which he interprets in terms of 10 years of work with data.

The author warned that some of her findings are assumptions, and invited Facebook employees to refute them. Although, according to her, the research carried out rather confirms these assumptions.

Mindfulness manifesto

Vicki believes that Facebook has become a very significant part of our daily life. Therefore, you need to familiarize yourself with the possible consequences of its use.

If, after reading, you do not stop actively using Facebook, then it will be your conscious choice, a compromise for life in society.

What is the problem

Back in 2014, Facebook engineers wrote that they receive about 600 terabytes of data every day - that's 193 million copies of War and Peace.

Facebook's privacy policy explains what data the social network collects and what it does with it. But like many companies, some less obvious points remain between the lines.

Facebook knows what you haven't posted

Unsent posts are also saved. Keystrokes are recorded. Previously, this data has already been used for a published Facebook study on self-censorship: how and why people correct their posts before submitting.

If the system saves even messages that you did not send, there is no guarantee that when you delete any other data, they will not remain inside.

And when you do write a post, upload a picture or change any other information, "fair game" begins with your data. Facebook can use them for its own research, transfer to marketing aggregators, and possibly the US government.

Facebook collects even the data about you that you did not provide, and makes a portrait of your personality

The social network probably knows your email, phone number, and home address, even if you haven't shared it. But this is what your friends share when they try to establish contact with you.

The system also tries to identify your face.

Every time a photo of people is uploaded, the algorithm scans the faces to create a digital biometric template.

What Facebook doesn't know, it tries to figure out. And if he's not good at it, he can partner with other companies to collect marketing information so that the social network can more effectively target you with its algorithm for the appearance of posts in the feed, advertisements, and so on.

For example, Facebook calculates household income data to sell that information to marketers. This information is combined with other information we know about you (credit card activity, behavior on third-party websites that are affiliated with Facebook, and so on) to create as complete your profile as possible.

The types of targeting in the Facebook ad account say a lot about the data manipulation that the social network hides behind the scenes.

Facebook follows you even after you log out

The social network continues to track you through cookies, as well as through single sign-on technology.

The privacy policy states: "We collect information when you visit or use third party websites and applications that use our services."

Facebook is trying (or already knows how) to track how you move your cursor across the screen.

In 2011, the company was already tracking what you are doing before you go to the social network.

What Facebook does with your data

First, it uses advertising to sell.

Worse, the social network conducts research with its users, like with guinea pigs, to motivate them to spend more time in the news feed, view more ads and perform other actions.

Vicki Boykis quotes a former Facebook employee that during his tenure at the company there was no expert council that would approve or disapprove of behavioral tests.

Also, the social network forms an "information bubble", focusing on the interests of the user. The algorithm understands what topics you like and shows similar ones, eliminating what you probably need to know, but which may go against your point of view.

One of the most famous examples is the Wall Street Journal experiment. Employees of the publication decided to check how different agendas are seen on Facebook by American conservatives and American liberals.

Activist Eli Paraizer explains how information bubbles work.

We do not receive information that could question or expand our view of the world.

The Facebook Research Center conducts research on anthropological topics on which unwitting participants did not agree. For example, Facebook's research team recently published a study of social connections in immigrant communities in the United States.

And this is work that is being done openly. And then what happens behind the scenes?

Things to Remember When You Use Facebook

Any of your actions on social networks and on other sites (when you are logged in to Facebook) are potentially tracked, and this information is stored and processed on the company's servers.

How exactly is it processed? It is hard to say. Maybe as part of a social experiment. Maybe your information is being shared with government agencies. Maybe individual Facebook employees can access your account. Perhaps the information is being shared with insurance companies.

There is no private life within the social network.

What if you don't want to share data with Facebook?

• Don't give too much personal information.
• Do not post pictures of children, especially if they are minors. Facebook can legally use them for advertising.
• Use a separate browser for Facebook.
• Install ad blockers.
• Don't install the Facebook app on your phone. It requires a sky-high level of access to your personal data.
• Don't install Messenger on your phone. Use the mobile version of the site. If Messenger is blocked on the mobile version, use workarounds to go to the desktop version of the social network in a browser.

Expert commentary

The question arises: is the advice not to give too much information about yourself only applies to Facebook? Is it possible in principle that all large companies follow the user?

Evgeny Yushchuk Competitive Intelligence Specialist.

The most universal rule is to remember that absolutely everything that was posted on the Web may be in the public domain or from interested parties.