It has become increasingly disturbing just how much the concept of “big brother” has taken prominence in society. What’s even more disturbing is that media industries are monitoring people’s personal data without the knowledge or consent of the consumer. The Editorial Board has recently discovered that Facebook has collected data on their users and uses this data to separate them into certain niche audiences, where they can target certain advertisements and content that will be best received. So, Facebook is making sure that we see content that we actually want to see… why is that bad? They’re doing so in a way that hoards, and makes assumption based off of, the personal data of its users. Facebook is emerging as the ultimate big brother.
Let’s do an experiment. Go to your facebook account and click on settings. Next, click on the “ads” tab on the left-hand side of the screen. Now, click on “your information” and next to the “about you” tab there is a second tab entitled “your categories.”
BAM. These are the categories that Facebook has carefully classified you into based off of the content you post, like, share and respond to as well as the content the friends you interact most with post, like, share, and respond to. One of your friendly neighborhood Mirror editorial members happens to be ‘friends’ on facebook with relatives and friends from numerous different countries, resulting in an “about you” ad denomination of “expatriate.”
Makes sense, right? Have you ever searched a clothing item, just visited a website or Google a musician? The moment you get back on Facebook you get advertisements along the sides that show what you were just looking at. Unsettling to say the least.
Once Facebook classifies you into particular categories, they then use these specific groups of people to send out targeted advertisements for your personal enjoyment. It’s a money-making master plan to ensure that consumers are receiving content that they enjoy. For example, your local “expatriate” receives some advertisements for some great flight deals, but that means that Facebook is not only getting information from your own account, but also your friends and family members for this information.
This is destroying the initial ideal of Facebook. Facebook advertises its ability to bring people together – to combine the opinions of someone who has the same beliefs as you with those that don’t. Facebook is supposed to act as an industry that allows users to see a variety of content from many different people and niches on one collective platform. However, Facebook is instead creating content that breaks up consumers and confines them to the safety and comfort of the media they are used to and agree with.
While these filters can be cleared with a simple press of an ‘x’ button located next to each, these fields will only once again fill in the future. `
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