Why Private Settings on Traditional Social Media Aren’t Really Private
There was a time when the only people worrying about privacy settings and facial recognition technology were the people considered a bit fringe, and maybe even a little paranoid. The type people might have thought best avoided at parties. Not any more. As we move into a world where companies track our every move online, where we carry mobile devices full of apps that have the ability to track our location, and facial recognition software is used in mainstream devices; we are realising that trying to protect our privacy is not being paranoid or trying to hide something, it’s just being smart.
“Privacy is not about ‘hiding.’ It’s about safety,” says Evan Greer, the Deputy Director of Fight for the Future, a nonprofit digital-rights advocacy group, in an interview with AARP. “Modern technology makes it all too easy for photos or personal information that are shared with the best of intentions to be exploited and used to do harm.”
So we set our social accounts to private and pat ourselves on the back for keeping our families safe. But is that really enough? “Just because your social media account is set to ‘private’ does not mean that it’s actually private,” Greer says.
Although social media networks and apps may have privacy setting options, they aren’t necessarily taking steps to limit the flow of your data. Anyone who is friends with you on a social network can share the images you post on your private account with their own friends and followers. Let’s face it, most of us have at least a few “friends” or have followers that we’ve never met. Who knows what these “friends” are up to or what apps or quizzes they have allowed access to their profiles — which in turn have access to their contacts’ data. As the Cambridge Analytica scandal proved when 87 million Facebook users had their raw data exposed to a Cambridge Analytica researcher who worked for the Trump campaign, most social media companies often aren’t doing enough to protect your personal information from third parties. Of course after this scandal in 2015, Facebook in Europe at least had to tighten up its permissions and privacy controls to comply with the European Union’s GDPR guidelines.
The Waterfall Effect of Data Sharing
But even if you set your profile to private, an app you install can resell your data — every personal detail you supply and all the information they’ve gathered about your habits, preferences and behaviours — to other businesses. And it doesn’t stop there; once it’s sold, the buyer can also resell your information.
A recent study by the Norwegian Consumer Council discovered this cascading effect of information sharing on 10 popular mobile phone apps. All ten of the popular apps they studied transmitted data to a total of 135 third parties who use the data for advertising or behaviour profiling. The dating app OKCupid shared highly personal data about sexuality, drug use and political views with the analytics company Braze.
The Twitter-owned company MoPub collected information on individual users of some apps, including their precise location, and shared the data with more than 180 other companies including an advertising company owned by AT&T. That company then shared the information with more than 1000 other businesses.
As consumers are becoming more savvy to the dark side of adtech, they’re no longer blindly ticking the accept T&Cs box. In fact, they’re actively moving away from popular apps in search of a new business model. This is evidenced by Whatsapp losing millions of users after a Terms of Service update this year, while private messaging apps Signal and Telegram gained 7.5 million and 25 million users globally in the span of 3 weeks in January.
Introducing Kin, Where Privacy Isn’t an Option, It’s a Standard Feature
There’s a consumer appetite for a new, simpler way to communicate with family and friends, without having to scour terms of service, tick off a bunch of different privacy settings and keep up with all the changing terms of service agreements. What if an app wasn’t looking to share your most personal information and the information of the ones you love with the highest bidder? What if privacy was just a box-standard feature?
That was part of our premise when we created Kin, the private media space for family and friends to gather and share everyday moments, memories and messages. A secure digital space where you have complete control over your images, videos and messages.
As the adage goes: on the internet: if you’re not paying for the product, you are the product. That’s why we wanted to build a subscription-based, private media space that is more centered around our members, and with no advertisers in sight.
Kin provides an ad-free, secure and private place for families to group chat, post photos and videos all without worrying about some dark corner of the internet where their data may end up. It’s where you share what matters with the people who matter — a welcome alternative to mainstream social media and messaging apps. The first person in your family to sign up can become a KinPin and invite more members to join. Your family Storyline is as private as the family album on the coffee table at your grandmother’s house. No third-parties mining your data, or ads constantly bombarding you and your loved ones. No headaches from reading all the fine print while trying to protect your family. Just a digital home filled with a steady stream of photos, inside jokes, memories, milestones and future messages shared with the ones you know and love.
Come give it a try and let us know what you think. We’re available in the App Store and on Google Play. We’d love to see you there and get your feedback. Come help us shape the future of private media.
