So you think you’re real? You’re nothing more than a product

Let’s be clear, Facebook is a behemoth corporate monopoly. In the world of privacy it is a bête noir that runs a railroad through the very idea of confidentially. The same can applied to other social networks.

As a social media user, whether you like it or not, you’re nothing more than a product. You may think of yourself as an individual connecting and sharing with friends but behind the interface you’re just a collection of data.

You may think that your age, email address, phone number, workplace, school, friends, places you visit, photos you post, jokes you make, tastes you prefer, people you upset and websites you browse is nobody else’s business, it’s a part of your personal life. But you’d be wrong.

Ugly truth

The straightforward ugly truth is that there is no privacy online and no benefit for you as an individual when your data is used. In fact, you’re probably not even aware of what is happening to your data.

Behind the scenes all your personal life information is swept up, fed into an enormous analytical digital behemoth and then regurgitated onto a conveyer belt of big data packages. And you get absolutely nothing for it, not even a cent.

Facebook (including WhatsApp) Instagram, Twitter, Pinterest, YouTube and so on scoop these data packages up; lay them at the altar of commercial interest and turn away clutching large wads of cash. And this process takes place around the clock. It never stops.

It belongs to you

“So, what?” you may say, ‘”Its simply business.” But this is an aspect of your life, it belongs to you, shouldn’t you have a say?

And what else is this data being used for that you don’t know about? Shall we mention Cambridge Analytica and SCL, its British counterpart, who harvested profiles from 87 million Facebook users without their consent?

What about the deeply undermining curse of false news? During the 2016 election an estimated one in four Americans received fake information in their Facebook feeds, designed to politically manipulate their voting intentions. This was manipulation on a scale never seen before.

Dark tactics

You might also say, “Hasn’t legislation like GDPR put a brake on this data gathering?” The answer is “No.” On the surface social networks are complying but many are using dark tactics to ensure users accept privacy policies, so they can continue exploiting user data.

There’s also the ever hovering threat of cyber fraudsters. Hackers develop cunning new attack methods all the time. As one security insider recently put it the world of cyber fraud is akin to a “feeding frenzy.” It only takes one successful hack, or phishing attempt, your data ends up for sale on the dark web and before you know it you’re a victim of identity fraud.

Doing little

Facebook does little to root out fraudster phishing ads and by turning a blind eye to millions of user profiles being siphoned off, it received little more than a slap on the wrist from a U.S. senate committee.

Despite the public outcry social media operations are hardly likely to abandon their data gathering modus operandi. To do so would signal the beginning of the end which would ultimately lead to them being sucked into a digital black hole; in time reduced to no more than mere footnotes in the history of the internet.

Yet in terms of social media evolution they are already dinosaurs. They can’t adapt to the rapid cultural progression of social digital awareness nor are they able to address the swelling tide of public opinion that demands privacy, without putting a very large metal stake through their collective feet.

Cultural revolution

They are yet to understand that a new social networking paradigm is already emerging one which respects privacy and confidentiality. Social networks 3.0, as we can call it, provide fundamentally different user interactions that are informed by the absolute need for transparency, fairness and security.

These next-gen services are based on collective social principles that put personal data back in the hands of people who it belongs to. It challenges the very idea of todays over centralized, monopolistic social media and enables users to regain control of their online data.

Digital evolution advances at a rapid rate and todays social networks are in a sense stuck in the past with their monolithic platforms. For instance one option to address the outcry around Cambridge Analytica is decentralized platforms.

No more data hostages

People can talk to each other directly, and in groups, rather than being held as data hostages on managed platforms. Users can also choose where they want to store their data geographically.

It’s not difficult to envisage a situation in which a user can choose from hundreds of thousands locations thwarting third parties in their dastardly endeavours to turn your data into their money.

Of course there have been criticisms of decentralized platforms mainly around security. The argument goes that they generally allow anyone to join and don’t link accounts to real-world identities like phone numbers.

But this is disingenuous. User content can be linked to universal digital identifiers that help identify the real sender of a message and establish their credibility. It’s also a watertight method for rooting out fraudsters and phishing ads. There are also advanced developments in authentication technologies which defend resolutely against fraudsters and bots, virtually eliminating any scope for fraud.

Power to the people

But, and here’s the really important thing, users actually keep, own and control their data. It’s not siphoned off by unknown parties.

In fact, if the network owner wants to use their data for advertising, and of course they do have to generate revenue, they ask for user consent. In return the network owners offer a percentage of revenue generated from that data.

In short, users are not only considered to be producers of data but also the owners of their content. This is social networks 3.0, by the people and for the people. And it’s coming.