1. Are media companies selling your data for profits?

Yes, social media sites such as Instagram, Twitter, and Facebook take in data daily from their users’ likes, dislikes, and personal information and have created an algorithm that studies this data and uses it to capitalize for profit by means of selling this information to advertising companies. These sites consistently pump out tailored content to keep users engaged because the more the user is involved, the more money they make by ads and overall engagement with the site (i.e., time spent). Some could be wondering how are they making this profit solely on data? Electronic Frontier Foundation, an organization dedicated to protecting users’ rights in cyberspace since 1990, has made it their mission to bring this knowledge of data for profit to the forefront of the social media dilemma.  Senior staff technologist Bill Budington says that these media platforms have been using fingerprinting browsing, customer trafficking in stores through wifi probes, SDKs in phones, and aggressive advertisements for years to not only gain as much information as they can on users but to return it for major profit.

2. What are your rights when it comes to cyberspace, and can you protect your data?

Under the Fourth Amendment, Americans are protected from unlawful government search, and seizures, but not every American knows that this incorporates their computers and mobile devices. Surveillance Self-Defense is a how-to guide on how social media users can protect themselves and their loved ones from online spying. In this guide, topics such as why metadata matters and what cyber tools users can utilize for protection will better equip users with the knowledge of their rights in cyberspace and how to protect themselves from invasive data for profit tactics performed by popular social media platforms.

3. How can data collection can affect your traveling?

Most media users enjoy the geotag feature on many social media platforms.  Geotagging can be harmful to travelers and the destinations they are visiting. Some of these harms include the overflow of tourism to places that cannot support the infrastructure, exposing the privacy of people and wildlife through means of cyber poaching, and unauthorized tracking of users and their loved ones while on vacation. National Geographic covered these issues in 2019 when Bogle Seed Farms in Ontario, Canada, had to temporarily shut down after 7,000 people littered and destroyed sunflowers in a single day after a post went viral. Another incident occurred in Madhya Pradesh, India, when wildlife researcher Krishnamurthy Ramesh’s encrypted GPS data files regarding multiple Bengal tigers locations were almost hacked by cyber poachers. While geotag features are on numerous sites and devices, there are also ways to combat these privacy breaches with tools such as disabling geotag functionality in settings or using apps like Image Optim that remove geotags on existing photos. This tool allows users to share their location via their GPS metadata on videos and pictures. By doing so, users can ensure the safety and privacy of the places they want to discover, their personal lives from being tracked as they journey onward, and quality time with the people and wildlife around them for memories to come.