Facebook has been around for more than 12 years now. It has established itself in our lives in so many ways that most people find it hard to even imagine their life without Facebook.
Did you ever wonder how Facebook has managed to remain at the top for so long? What is their secret? The answer is quite simple. You. You are the main reason for their success.But you are not paying anything for their services. How can you be the reason for Facebook’s enormous income?
In order to explain this, I first need to start with a now cliché quote:
“If you’re Not Paying, You’re The Product”
What this means is that, since Facebook doesn’t have any direct revenue from your usage of their services, the only way it can make money is by manipulating your personal data in a way that helps them profit as much as possible. But how far does Facebook go with your personal data manipulation?
Starting to know each other
First let’s get the basics out of the way. You have already given Facebook information about who your friends are, what your hobbies are, how old you are, where you live and whether you are in a relationship or not.Facebook also has a clear image of what you like and dislike, your favorite movies, songs and books, as well as your overall interests. Adding to those you need to know that their app can read and store your phone number, contact details and emails.
It already sounds bad when you hear it all together but that’s nothing compared to how Facebook exploits your personal information for their own benefit. They claim to use this information to better serve you targeted advertisement but I can assure you it does not end there.
Personal Information Invasion
Stepping deeper into Facebook’s personal data mining we discover that the monitoring of their users doesn’t stop at their platform.Instead once you register to their service, Facebook starts collecting your browser and internet history.
In other words it tracts your activity on other websites recording every move you make online. Facebook then sells this information to basically anyone who is willing to pay.Rest assured that plenty of 3rd parties have already bought your personal information and proceeded to use it as they liked.
It gets a lot worse
Unfortunately Facebook’s data consumption doesn’t stop there. It gets a lot worse. From manipulating it’s users emotions to recording their private texts and conversations, Facebook does it all.
If you want to find out how much worse it gets from here, you can watch this video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tb8_mhNRsjk