Ever search for something online, and then see an advertisement for it on your Facebook page the next time you go to look at your profile? Yeah, it's weird, isn't it?
Facebook makes all of its' money off of advertisements. The main goal of any company is to make money, and Facebook is no exception. Facebook puts its' advertisements before its' members. Therefore, you , as a Facebook member, are privy to leaks in security in order to have more accurate and pinpointed ads. The social networking site actually gives out your private information to these advertisement companies and let's them use it.
You might say that this is all in the name of advertisement, but if Facebook is using your private information, that means this that this information is being stored in some sort of database. Imagine if this information was somehow leaked?
Now, I'm going to be honest, the possibility of your private information being leaked from a high class company such as Facebook is slim to none. But if you stop and think about it, the security problems with some social networking sites can be pretty scary.
How do you feel about the security with social networking sites such as Facebook? Do you think there's nothing wrong, or do you think some things could be fixed? Let me know what you think!
I think it's definitely a scary but totally plausible concept. Kids use sites like Facebook without thinking about much else beyond talking to friends, and aren't aware that those sites can use your history or known likes or information to create ads specific to one person. And, quite frankly, it isn't an impossible situation in which one of those sites--maybe not Facebook, but some other social networking site--to leak that information or be hacked and have that information lain bare. I don't think those sorts of sites should use user-specific ads because the information used to generate ads that go towards someone is saved and in some cases, distributed.
ReplyDeleteThe Rhetoric Sound brings up a good point the dangers to young people who haven't been properly educated about what information not to give away.
ReplyDeleteI do not, however, think that personalized ads should be a cause for alarm. I'm not really too worried about the fact that I like Harry Potter and Yoplait yogurt being "leaked." Even the general area where I live or the school I went to doesn't alarm me--you can find it pretty easily on the internet anyway. I do try to limit the information I record online, though. And it is possible that I have a false sense of security...