Online Privacy, Demonetization & Your Rights
The news is increasingly grim for those who value online privacy and the safety of our personal data as well as the erosion of our online rights. The idea that we can maintain a degree of anonymity online now seems more an unrealistic dream, as every website and social media platform looks to learn as much about us as possible from our likes, views, and clicks.
Seemingly nothing is safe as our entire online lives are scanned and analyzed in order to try and determine our behaviors and habits in an effort to create ad revenue. And users are left with little recourse as these social media platforms change their rules, save for disconnecting entirely with the online community and those they’re connected with through these online media.
The reliance of social media platforms on ad revenues ultimately leads to tighter controls over content on the part of the corporations that run them. These platforms want to maximize their cut of advertising dollars, so the process to monetize content is difficult, with a small return. And advertisers have an outsized voice in what content is allowed on social media channels based upon their investment of ad dollars, rather than allowing users to drive what is on sites based upon their own creativity and audiences. This leads to the demonetization of valuable content that could serve to cut into the profitability of these companies.
RightsLedger allows everyone to monetize and keep control of their content throughout the rights management process, and protects the privacy of consumers and distributors alike.
YouTube Makes it Harder to Monetize
YouTube’s recent demonetization policy has come under scrutiny for its curtailing of users’ ability to generate revenue from their content. The program initially began as an effort to curtail inappropriate content on the platform by stripping advertising from content flagged as inappropriate through an algorithm. This had the unintended effect of costing creators that had innocuous videos inadvertently flagged as inappropriate considerable portions of their adshare revenue.
Another change came to its standards for those partners YouTube share ad revenue with. Creators are now required to have garnered 4,000 hours of watch time on their channel over the past year and maintain a subscriber base of 1,000 users in order to partake in the Partner Program and get a percentage of the ad revenue from their videos. This change is leaving small creators out in the cold and unable to generate any revenue from their videos. More than that, it is creating a class system for the platform, and marginalizing niche creators from the community at large.
YouTube’s statement on the changes reiterates the claim that the new policy is aimed at weeding out creators who post negative or inappropriate content from receiving ad revenue. But removing the ability of positive, enthusiastic, and passionate creators to generate some sort of revenue for their work seems to unfairly punish the innocent with the guilty, and the implementation of unpopular policies over the objections of the YouTube community at large serves as a reminder that YouTube and other social media platforms serve their own interests, not the users’.
Facebook is Watching You
Facebook’s Cambridge Analytical scandal goes to prove that terms of use and privacy policies can become meaningless as the terms change and the balance of power tips increasingly towards companies rather than people. What we post, what we click on and like and share, and even what we do on our phones and devices outside of our Facebook use, all become fair game for the company to harvest and analyze and use to sell advertising and to show you what they think you want to see.
And while Cambridge Analytica went beyond the regulations of what Facebook allows and was eventually suspended, users ultimately remain powerless to take any action against Facebook, or to stop what it is that Facebook does, which is to remove the idea of privacy and autonomy from the user experience.
RightsLedger Offers Users Control
With RightsLedger, users have control of their content and its distribution and monetization. They can form relationships directly with their fans and customers to offer rewards and incentives. The transparency of the blockchain allows creators to track the user of their content and get compensated fairly. And the security of encrypting data on the blockchain keeps personal information private. Users are able to once again take control of what they post online and how it’s used.
Let us know what you think about demonetization and privacy breaches below.
