Social Media and Privacy

-K.Thirugnana Sambanthan, Asst.Professor, SIMS

In this current technological era there are many things which are affecting our privacy.  There are many spywares, hacking technologies behind this.  How many of us know that our mobile camera can be controlled by software and hackers can record all your actions.

If you search for a particular product in any search engine, you can see promotional advertisement in other social media. How this is done, most of these sites have access to our cookies data. When we browse the web you can view Share buttons of social media on all pages, from news outlets to shopping sites. If those buttons are on the page, regardless of whether you touch them or not, those websites will be collecting your data. Facebook filed the first patent titled Techniques for Emotion Detection and Content Delivery in February 2014 and the second one called Dynamic Eye Tracking Calibration in October 2017. If Facebook uses this technology it can use our computer or mobile camera and store data of our feelings. Similarly whatsapp can track our calls based on keywords.  Social Media deal in data, communicate using data, analyze markets and build their business models using our data. Data is the bread and butter of social media.Google uses Location to build up a picture of your everyday movements. Location data can be combined with other data and pooled to create a very detailed picture of an individual’s life and habits.

What can be done to eliminate online tracking?

1. Use different Browsers for different websites.
2. Use different email ids for different social media sites
3. Install ad blockers in your system
4. Install anti tracking software’s in your system
5. Don’t share much personal details on Social media.