Data Collection and Privacy in the Digital Age
By Daniel Graham
“I built my FYP brick by brick”
A seemingly harmless phrase that highlights the delight social media users experience when browsing relatable posts or "niche" interests.
What the phrase does not acknowledge is how these platforms filter content to hook users into scrolling preferred content. It all boils down to the advent of the algorithm.
Through a Chaffey College survey of 31 students and staff, 96% declared they use at least one social media platform multiple times a day. A majority of respondents expressed comfortability with companies using personal data to provide a tailored experience. One respondent asserted to have no problem with it “until they sell it to data brokers (that) could do harm.”
Data brokers are third-party companies that exploit weak privacy laws to gather personal information. This data collection creates a profile on each online presence: remembering every clicked link, saved product, and shared videos or memes.
Unfortunately, users unknowingly consent to this invasion of privacy when signing up for these media platforms. Many are familiar with the “manage cookies” banner popping up while visiting most websites, and for most it is natural to select the “accept all” button just to view the screen properly. What users are actually doing in this scenario is giving the website permission to track every click next through the site.
This allows data brokers to push services that fit users' interests while also providing the company with an understanding of what attracts clicks to products on the site.
Some platforms and services make users accept their terms and conditions before further access is permitted. The average length of these contracts, however, sits at about 34,000 words and would take the average reader approximately two and a half hours to read completely from start to finish.
Among the clauses detailing the platform use, lost are the important considerate facts about data management and privacy rights. Coupled with a declining literacy rate in the US, the lack of consumer awareness in respecting online privacy is unsurprising.
In one case, a family found themselves unable to sue Disney for the wrongful death of a loved one because they were subscribed to Disney+. After Disney backtracked on the “mandatory arbitration clause” buried somewhere in the Disney+ contract, it was finally decided that the case would be heard in court. This is just one example of how these lengthy agreements can lead to the abuse of rights.
Users are torn when confronted with the reality of how these services operate, with some survey replies stating users are willing to sacrifice their personal information and liberty because, “it is more convenient if they do,” while others detest the prospect. “These platforms aren’t giving me a dime for my information,” one user states.
Another survey respondent states, “because the retrieval of information isn’t visible to social media users, it feels like it’s too hard and too time consuming for someone to really consider the implications of their data being collected.” Due to the normalization of data collecting, many consumers do not pay attention to how exactly their data may be used.
Between the terms and conditions that go unread and the proliferation of data collection on nearly every online platform, it is hard to imagine that users have any agency over what type of content is being viewed or interacted with. Even news sources are becoming tailored to certain opinions or social circles.
Fortunately, there are methods to preserve what little privacy is left on the internet. For cookies, one can instead click “manage cookies” to disable any that are unnecessary. One can also invest in data-removal services such as Delete Me that will actively delete personal information from data-collecting sites for a subscription fee. Unfortunately, these services will cease once the payment is stopped and the data will be available to collect once again.
This is the current state of the internet. Users accept compromising their privacy for the sake of convenience. Those that wish to secure some personal information must take extra –– sometimes inconvenient –– steps to gain agency back for a limited time.