Big Data & Privacy in a Post-Facebook Era | Why another massive scandal is inevitable

“Your privacy and security are important to us,” say social media companies as they invade our privacy and harvest our data.

All our online actions serve as a source for data-processing companies to discover trends by monitoring our behavior patterns, message activity and spending habits. This, of course, happens without us being informed.

Everything we do on social media generates data — whether sharing a photo, clicking an ad, liking a friend’s post or merely sending a text message. The majority of social media platforms store this data on their servers and sell it to other companies to use against us in the form of targeted ads or something more sinister.

Privacy has lost its meaning.

Even if we log out of all social media accounts and delete every app on our devices, we are still sharing our location and other personal information. Data breaches are inevitable!

Why do we still put up with data theft?

Companies regularly store and sell our private information, data scandals happen almost every other month, and we respond with indifference, thinking there’s no personal consequence. Our indifference gives a green light to tech companies to keep processing your data and selling it to anyone interested. The next data scandal is just around the corner.

The biggest problem is us!

As hard as it is to face the truth, we are enabling data theft. As long as companies give us the information we may want, or offer a discount on products we might be interested in, we put up with them using our data to analyze our habits and personality traits.

What we don’t understand is that these companies also use the vast amounts of data they gather on us to manipulate us. They say online data is the new oil of the Internet, and each scandal shows us that companies will even bypass the law to get what they want.

How can we stop the scandals?

Privacy-conscious individuals and conscientious companies should create a safe and secure social media environment for the future. We can take back our privacy and stop data theft.

Anyone who becomes a member of a social media network should:

⏩ Know what type of personal information is being collected

⏩ How our collected data is going to be used

⏩ Who is going to use our personal data

⏩ Have an option to opt out

⏩ Be able to see the collected data and be able to delete it without leaving traces on the Internet

⏩ Have the right to monetize our own personal data instead of letting platform owners do so

POP is ready to take the first step and provide a secure space where your data and content belongs only to you. All it takes to support the idea is to be more aware of your online actions and take control of your data.

Join the social media revolution, join POP!

Request early access: https://postopoly.app/