User personal information 'generates' money for Facebook

Facebook hit 2 billion users last June, and it’s still “free” to everyone. But that’s not true, because the world’s largest social network is still selling something that people pay little or no attention to: personal information.

Privacy and personal information are what users trade for using Facebook every day. According toCNN, "like", "comment", "share" actions or where you are, what you are doing... even the content you exchange is recorded in detail by Facebook. In addition to the data you have provided before such as name, date of birth, phone number, address... Facebook has a huge data warehouse.

They are then stored in extremely large data centers andsell to advertisers. With what is collected, Facebook's system will analyze and suggest ads based on user habits. Don't be surprised when an item appears on your Newsfeed that you have exchanged with others via text message or video call.Messenger just minutes before, because everything was monitored by Facebook.

Facebook is not alone. Most of the big online service businesses, such as Google, Microsoft, Yahoo, AOL, Amazon, Twitter and Yelp, do the same, because it is what keeps them alive and thriving.Sharing data with third parties has also turned Facebook and Google into the world's leading online advertisers. They have billions of users and advertisers flock to them. According toeMarketer, Facebook and Google control three-quarters of the $83 billion digital advertising market in the US alone.

Of course, companies also have their own rules and terms so that users do not feel taken advantage of. But that is not 100% true.

Last weekend,The Cambridge Analytica public data firm has revealed disturbing information, when up to 50 million Facebook users' personal information was exploited. The social network's algorithm sought to access, distort information and thereby influence the 2016 US election.