'Gold mine' of network operators

Meanwhile, “big guys” like Twitter, Facebook and Google encourage users to share information and then quietly collect it and make a lot of money from it.

Facebook Company logo. Photo: Reuters

Not all social media or search engine users on the Internet fully understand the value of the content they post and the clicks they make expressing their opinions and attitudes while using Internet service platforms every day.

"Gold mine" from big data

Technology companies such as Google, Facebook, Twitter, which operate and do business on big data platforms, always have access to huge user data stores (big data) collected from day to day, month to month. There is a lot of personal information that users "voluntarily donate", but there is also a lot of user information that is collected unintentionally by service platforms.

Have you ever seen those Facebook Like buttons and “Sign-in with Facebook” buttons on other websites? Yes, that’s how Facebook is tracking you all over the internet. And Facebook can also track posts and comments you’ve written but haven’t sent yet.

Along with the information Facebook collects about you, there are also other entities that Facebook shares your data with. These include games and fun quizzes that often require you to log in to your Facebook account to participate.

The enthusiasm and willingness of everyday users to use Google and social networking sites will provide these big data business giants with a huge database of information about what you like, dislike, not to mention detailed information about each person's spending habits and web surfing habits...

All of that information has effectively given Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and other tech leaders a wealth of personal information to use in the modern digital advertising industry. It also gives them an endless source of free content to “sew” ads alongside.

The New York Times once compared the endless posts of users, photos of their travel and vacations everywhere, and the arguments and "exposés" on social networks to have turned this platform into a truly top-notch "reality TV" show, attracting a large audience. And of course, you know who the profits flow to.

Need for transparency

Transparency in operations has been a topic of discussion for many Internet companies in recent times, most recently in connection with the investigation into allegations of Russian interference in the US election through social networks. Whether or not social networks interfere with specific user issues in all areas remains an unanswerable question due to the opacity of their policies for collecting and processing user information.

In a recent incident involving Twitter, after actress Rose McGowan took to Twitter to accuse media and entertainment industry leaders of being involved in covering up allegations of sexual harassment and abuse by film producer Harvey Weinstein, Twitter blocked the actress's account.

However, after the hashtag #WomenBoycottTwitter became popular, Twitter reactivated actress Rose McGowan's account, accompanied by an apology from Twitter CEO Jack Dorsey, saying that more transparency was needed to explain how Twitter made such decisions.

Last month, Facebook founder Mark Zuckerberg also called for “transparency” when he announced that the company would share more information about who bought political ads on its platform. However, his commitment came after the company admitted that it had allowed Russian partners to buy ads that were accused of dividing the country and skewing the results of the 2016 US presidential election.

Likewise, Google has pledged to be "transparent" after advertisers were angered by its algorithm, which placed their ads next to videos containing hate and terrorism content on YouTube.

According to TTO