It’s something everyone should have realized a long time ago: despite all its cheap talk about friends and friendship, Facebook is not your friend.
And it never was.
It’s a business, a business that only really exists because you’ve agreed to share a whole bunch of your private information with it. A company whose business is selling access — to you.
Think about this: even if Facebook wasn’t giving access or selling your information to people with even sleazier morals, it was using it for its own ends. What Facebook is being chastised for now — allowing outside app users to “scrape” its data so that they could do things like tailor advertising and fake news to the credulous — is something it does all on its own every single day.
And you’ve agreed to it.
That is the nub of your business relationship — not your friendship — with the corporate giant that is Facebook. They’re providing you with their platform free of charge — but they exact a price.
It’s a business, a business that only really exists because you’ve agreed to share a whole bunch of your private information with it. A company whose business is selling access — to you.
Most people might not even stop to think about how extensively Facebook is collecting your information — it’s all in black and white on their website, but few people probably take the time to see what they’ve agreed to.
From Facebook’s data policy: “We collect the content, communications and other information you provide when you use our products, including when you sign up for an account, create or share content and message or communicate with others. This can include information in or about the content that you provide (e.g. metadata), such as the location of a photo or the date a file was created. It can also include what you see through features that we provide, such as our camera, so we can do things such as suggest masks and filters that you might like, or give you tips on using camera formats. Our systems automatically process content and communications that you and others provide to analyze context and what’s in them…”
But that’s the tip of the iceberg.
You can choose to give more: “You can choose to provide information in your Facebook profile fields, or life events about your religious views, political views, who you are ‘interested in’ or your health.”
Yep. Though you might not realize that you’ve agreed to do that.
“To create personalized Products that are unique and relevant to you, we use your connections, preferences, interests and activities based on the data that we collect and learn from you and others (including any data with special protections you choose to provide); how you use and interact with our Products; and the people, places or things that you’re connected to and interested in on and off our Products.”
Think about that: the things you’re interested in or connected to on and off our products. Whether you’re on Facebook at the time, or not.
You’ve invited a particularly nosy guest into your house — don’t be surprised that they’re rooting through your medicine cabinet when you’re not around.
Not only that, but if any of their nosy friends come over, those friends are probably going through your medicine cabinet, too.
“Advertisers, app developers and publishers can send us information through Facebook Business Tools, that they use, including our social plug-ins (such as the Like button), Facebook Login, our APIS and SDKs, or the Facebook pixel. These partners provide information about your activities off Facebook — including information about your device, websites you visit, purchases you make, the ads you see and how you use their services — whether or not you have a Facebook account or are logged in to Facebook.”
That last sentence is priceless. Facebook may be looking in your medicine cabinet even if you haven’t agreed to let them into your house. Even if you’re not a Facebook customer, they might be keeping files on you.
There have been recent stories where users have been outraged about the fact that, after writing private emails about the health of family members, they’ve turned on their Facebook accounts and found the advertising spaces filled with ads for funeral homes.
No one really should be.
You’re using Facebook’s great big machine every single day for free — and what you are trading for that free access is the very information that people seem to be so startled others are using now.
You are the product and you agreed to being that. Don’t ever be surprised about how you are being sold.
Russell Wangersky’s column appears in 39 SaltWire newspapers and websites in Atlantic Canada. He can be reached at [email protected] — Twitter: @wangersky.
