Social media is constantly watching us | Do you know the value of your data??
It is almost impossible not to rely on social networks in some way, whether for personal reasons or work; the volume of social functionality increases over time with features and services offered by sites such as Facebook. Can anyone imagine not relying on Twitter to keep up with breaking news worldwide instantly? The most essential thing in the world is how data can be leveraged.
Like it or not, these services are here to stay, and we may be "forced" to continue using them; some privacy concerns that lead people to say, "Just stop using them" are well founded. However, the reality is more complex.
For example, in many remote areas, Facebook or Twitter may be the only free access to the internet that people have. With so many restrictions on press freedom, social media often represents the only outlet for "truth" for some users.
In some areas, people can have unlimited access to Facebook through their mobile phones. If they are working, they will always use Facebook Messenger or another chat tool on social media to stay in touch instead of draining their phone credit with SMS.
Many of us can afford to get away from these services, but just as many of us can't think about it when there is nothing else to replace it, data mining has never been so profitable.
In the early days of Facebook, it took a lot of work to imagine using the platform to spread misinformation, help change some ideas and policies, or sell user data to third parties. We guide users through the social media business model and show how the inevitable happens: (when the product is free, the commodity is you and your data).
This is where companies invest a lot of money for promising-looking services and technology with the expectation that they will make big money and bring a return on investment in the form of profitable shares. When a company is bought or goes public, it represents substantial cash bags for everyone. (Well, that's the dream. Reality is usually somewhat more complicated).
It is not entirely typical for this high-risk speculation to bear fruit, and what often happens is that the company never pops up. Their performance could be better, or key employees leave. They expand too quickly with the detrimental effect that the CEO suddenly has this massive service with millions of users. There is no reasonable way to turn this user base into profit, and there is no way to retain it.
At this stage, they are either scrambling or looking to profit in other ways. This "other way" is almost always via user data. Everything is available, so why not?. Here are some ways social networks use to turn customer data into vast piles of cash.
This is the most apparent reason and the primary driver of online revenue for several years, social media platforms benefit in a way that other publishers cannot, and revenue streams are pretty correct in generating user revenue.
Advertising is a direct way for social networks to make money on the data they have collected and create chains where third parties are likely to indulge in the same group.
In its simplest form, platforms can provide advertising space for advertisers. Unlike traditional posting, social media ads can be customized for personal data that the social network sees you looking for, talking about, or liking daily.
If you thought pressing "like" (or equivalent) on the portal was just a helpful thumb in the general direction of a person providing content, think again. The data will likely be entered into the large group of "These are the ads we should show to this person."
Not only everything that you click on in the social network (and your browser) is available to grab, but everything that your colleagues and friends do, too, binds you in a neat little bend of profiling on social media. They can then be extracted to make links and estimates, which will also return to the ad units and earnings.
The estimates are based on your interests, your family, friends, and friends of your friends, as well as other demographic-specific clues, such as job title, photos of your home, travel experiences, cars, and marriage status. All these data points will help the social network accurately estimate your income, which is another way to determine which specific ads should be sent to you.
After all, if they send you the wrong ads, they lose. If you don't click on a promotional page, advertisers won't win. All this advertising investment will be well-spent if you have to take advantage of it.
Even selling your data to advertisers or other marketing companies can be on the table; depending on the terms of service, it is quite possible for the social platforms you use to hide the identity of their treasure trove and sell it at the highest price to third parties. Even in cases where the data is not sold, just publishing it is always a bit risky.
There have been many cases of unrelated non-social media where it turned out to be anonymous data; it was not. There are always people who can come after and bring it together, and they don't have to be Sherlock Holmes. All this is before you consider that social media sites/platforms with social components are not immune from the risks of theft, leakage, and data scraping.
As any cursory glance at a security news source will tell you, there are many fraudulent advertisers to compensate legitimate advertisers completely. Whether by buying or stumbling upon data leaked online, scammers can take social media data and link it to email or phone scams and additional fake promotions.
At this stage, even data generated by theoretically legitimate means are somehow used (abused) by unscrupulous individuals, harming the advertising industry even more.
Applications and Advertising
Moving from desktop to Mobile is an intelligent move for social networks, and if they can get you to install an application, then much better (for them). Depending on the mobile platforms, they may collect additional information about favorite sites, applications, services, and functions, which will not necessarily be available if you use a mobile web browser.
If you've been browsing for a long time via mobile apps, you'll almost certainly be familiar with the endless pop-ups and push notifications that tell you how great the app version of the site is. You may have also experienced the annoying sensation that websites deteriorate in functionality over time on mobile browsers.
Suddenly, the user interface has become a little worse, the text is too small, you can no longer find the previously public menu options, and certain types of content are no longer displayed correctly or efficiently, even when the content is as essential as a jpeg file.
Did the error message "Do you want to display this in the application?" The pop-up reflects the positions of the "yes" and "no" buttons. " who last saw her?" Are they trying to trick you into clicking the wrong thing? It's hard to remember. This is something that you have undoubtedly experienced when trying to do anything on social networking sites on Mobile except the app.
As soon as said application is locked, a new world appears in closely detailed data collection and a large selection of ads to choose from, some of which may lead to affiliate links, open the data collection network further, or lead to additional third-party downloads.
Some of them may be in the stores of official platforms, while others may sit on unofficial websites of third parties with all the implicit risks that such a thing carries.
Setting up how applications work on the appropriate website can increase revenue. Facebook experienced some difficulties in 2008 with 375 USD for developer fees.
The mere fact that a large number of developers are making applications for the platform - verified or not - generates data that the social network platform can take advantage of and then link back to its users, it's all your data, and it's navigating a much drier set of analytics.
This is the most apparent reason and the primary driver of online revenue for several years, social media platforms benefit in a way that other publishers cannot, and revenue streams are pretty correct in generating user revenue.
Advertising is a direct way for social networks to make money on the data they have collected and create chains where third parties are likely to indulge in the same group.
In its simplest form, platforms can provide advertising space for advertisers. Unlike traditional posting, social media ads can be customized for personal data that the social network sees you looking for, talking about, or liking daily.
If you thought pressing "like" (or equivalent) on the portal was just a helpful thumb in the general direction of a person providing content, think again. The data will likely be entered into the large group of "These are the ads we should show to this person."
Not only everything that you click on in the social network (and your browser) is available to grab, but everything that your colleagues and friends do, too, binds you in a neat little bend of profiling on social media. They can then be extracted to make links and estimates, which will also return to the ad units and earnings.
The estimates are based on your interests, your family, friends, and friends of your friends, as well as other demographic-specific clues, such as job title, photos of your home, travel experiences, cars, and marriage status. All these data points will help the social network accurately estimate your income, which is another way to determine which specific ads should be sent to you.
After all, if they send you the wrong ads, they lose. If you don't click on a promotional page, advertisers won't win. All this advertising investment will be well-spent if you have to take advantage of it.
Even selling your data to advertisers or other marketing companies can be on the table; depending on the terms of service, it is quite possible for the social platforms you use to hide the identity of their treasure trove and sell it at the highest price to third parties. Even in cases where the data is not sold, just publishing it is always a bit risky.
There have been many cases of unrelated non-social media where it turned out to be anonymous data; it was not. There are always people who can come after and bring it together, and they don't have to be Sherlock Holmes. All this is before you consider that social media sites/platforms with social components are not immune from the risks of theft, leakage, and data scraping.
As any cursory glance at a security news source will tell you, there are many fraudulent advertisers to compensate legitimate advertisers completely. Whether by buying or stumbling upon data leaked online, scammers can take social media data and link it to email or phone scams and additional fake promotions.
At this stage, even data generated by theoretically legitimate means are somehow used (abused) by unscrupulous individuals, harming the advertising industry even more.
Applications and Advertising
Moving from desktop to Mobile is an intelligent move for social networks, and if they can get you to install an application, then much better (for them). Depending on the mobile platforms, they may collect additional information about favorite sites, applications, services, and functions, which will not necessarily be available if you use a mobile web browser.
If you've been browsing for a long time via mobile apps, you'll almost certainly be familiar with the endless pop-ups and push notifications that tell you how great the app version of the site is. You may have also experienced the annoying sensation that websites deteriorate in functionality over time on mobile browsers.
Suddenly, the user interface has become a little worse, the text is too small, you can no longer find the previously public menu options, and certain types of content are no longer displayed correctly or efficiently, even when the content is as essential as a jpeg file.
Did the error message "Do you want to display this in the application?" The pop-up reflects the positions of the "yes" and "no" buttons. " who last saw her?" Are they trying to trick you into clicking the wrong thing? It's hard to remember. This is something that you have undoubtedly experienced when trying to do anything on social networking sites on Mobile except the app.
As soon as said application is locked, a new world appears in closely detailed data collection and a large selection of ads to choose from, some of which may lead to affiliate links, open the data collection network further, or lead to additional third-party downloads.
Some of them may be in the stores of official platforms, while others may sit on unofficial websites of third parties with all the implicit risks that such a thing carries.
Setting up how applications work on the appropriate website can increase revenue. Facebook experienced some difficulties in 2008 with 375 USD for developer fees.
The mere fact that a large number of developers are making applications for the platform - verified or not - generates data that the social network platform can take advantage of and then link back to its users, it's all your data, and it's navigating a much drier set of analytics.
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