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Your Personal Life is not Safe, Here's Why.
Written by Alex Yialeloglou.
Written by Alex Yialeloglou.
Would you feel comfortable walking around a public location with a sign above your head with your age, your home address, all your friends and families contact details, and all of your photos and videos just on display? That is essentially what you're doing when you sign up to a social media platform.
Social media is a common place for friends, family and even work colleagues to hang out. From communication to entertainment, it's where everyone goes when they have free time. (Smartinsights.com, 2024)
To be a part of this network of people, you have to sign up. It's very simple to sign up. Just create an account and provide a few details to whatever company is running the social network that you wish to join. The details that they ask for varies from company to company but the data they ask for generally consists of date of birth, full name, Email address, phone number, and country. After all that, you have to agree with the terms and conditions of the company. Ta-dah! It's that easy. But how many of you actually read the terms and conditions and the privacy policy? Do you know what personal data the company collects? Do you know what they do with that data?
People aren't afraid of what they can't see. This is probably why you're sitting there right now thinking “They don’t collect my data and even if they do, so what? There's nothing I can do about it now”. But they do. All the social media companies collect as much data as they possibly can, and they think they have good reason to do it.
The first reason for these companies collecting data on you is that it helps to build a profile on you. Your recommended feed, the ads and even friend suggestions are based on your account and the data that the company has on you. This personalised profile adds a familiar touch to your account. Your account is, after all, an extension of you. This profile also benefits the company that owns the social media. The company takes this profile and sells it on to third party advertising agencies which then target ads towards the user. This makes the social media company lots of money. According to Xiph Cyber (2022), a data privacy and protection company, “the data that is sold on to advertising companies can include your browsing history, your current location, contacts and your financial information if you've ever purchased something through the app”.
The results of a study done by cloud storage firm pCloud reveal that “Instagram was the worst offender when it comes to syphoning off your personal data and shares 79% of your data with third parties. In second place was Facebook, which gives 57% of your data away to third parties.” Google, X, Snapchat and TikTok also suck when it comes to selling your data. This means that you aren't just entrusting your personal information to one company, but many companies. Most of the third parties that buy your information dont have a disclosure policy and sometimes information gets out. Thankfully this information is generally anonymous so it can't be linked back to you, but it's still scary to think that your location, search history, device details and financial info are just out there.
Tiktok is one of the most popular social media apps out there. The short videos, chat feature and ability to keep up with what's trending makes Tiktok the go-to for a social media. TikTok collects just as much data as all the other social media companies. But unlike apps such as Instagram and Facebook, the concern does not lie with what data it collects, it lies with where this data is stored. While the app itself is banned in China, the owners of the company still reside in China meaning they fall under Chinese law. TikTok is China’s gateway to the rest of the world. The Chinese government can request anything they want from ByteDance, the mother company of TikTok. Shou Zi Chew, the CEO of ByteDance says that if the Chinese government submits any request for any user’s data then he will say no and decline it. Unfortunately, he can't do that as it is against Chinese law and that would be a crime. This is why the US and other countries don't allow their government workers to use TikTok as it could pose a data threat and a security issue.
So why am I writing this article? My dad works in an area of cyber security and in my household it is against the rules to use TikTok and other social media. Social media is not banned in my house because of the content, it's banned because of the lack of privacy and the security risk they pose to myself and others who know me. This doesn’t mean I am not on the internet: I use Discord and YouTube. Discord is not really a social media and is more of a chatroom for friends and groups. Youtube isn't really a social media either, but because it's owned by Google, the amount of data that is being taken about me is pushing the limits of what is allowed in my house. As Tim Cook, the CEO of Apple Inc. says, “We believe that privacy is a fundamental human right” and I certainly agree. I don't think it is ok to have my personal information taken away from me and sold to other people for their benefit. It's wrong and outrageous and I believe it should be made illegal to collect personal data for personal gains.
In this world of technology, many things are possible that weren't even dreamed of 20 years ago. The convenience of just being able to send someone a message, photo or video is awesome. Unfortunately, the companies that allow us to communicate are taking away the one thing that makes us who we really are. Our personal characteristics in the form of data harvested from the very device you're reading this on.
So how can you protect yourself? Next time you go to download an app for social media, think “Do I really need this?” If the answer is yes, then use the website version instead. I know, the website is always kinda janky and clunky, but it's deliberately made like that so you download their app instead, giving them a stronger foothold in your device. At the end of the day, it doesn't matter. Ask for someone’s phone number instead of their Snapchat or Instagram. It's safer, more secure and more private.
It is a dark world, out there, but you and only you can protect yourself from it. Do what's right, don't get Snapchat, or Instagram, or Tiktok, or anything. Read the fineprint. Make sure you understand what you are getting yourself into. Go into the “privacy” tab in the app’s settings and make sure they cant get s**t from you. Does it really matter? Will you die without social media? Trust me, you aren't missing out on anything. I'm not dead yet…
References:
Dylan Curran, (2018), Are you ready? Here is all the data facebook and Google have on you, https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2018/mar/28/all-the-data-facebook-google-has-on-you-privacy
Brian fung, (2023), TikTok collects a lot of data. But that’s not the main reason officials say it’s a security risk, https://edition.cnn.com/2023/03/24/tech/tiktok-ban-national-security-hearing/index.html
How social media is tracking you & collecting your data. (2022, July 9). Xiph Cyber. Retrieved June 6, 2024, from https://xiphcyber.com/articles/social-media-tracking
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