When it comes social media

you’re not a customer,

you’re the product.

[1] Lee, Wilson. "My Last New Apple Member before X'mas ?" Flickr.

By Adam Perron

With the rise of social media, the web has become a place where the majority of its content is posted by

average users like you and me.[2] Biagomala. "Keyboard" Flickr.

With countless social networks such as Instagram, Facebook, Twitter, Tumblr, and Youtube…

[3] Sharon Black. "Is Social Media Marketing Your Most Powerful Tool?" Rival IQ.

People are putting

HUGE amounts of personal data online.

[4] Tapasparida. "Group of people" Flickr.

Facebook, which is currently the largest social network sees

1.86 billion monthly

active users.

[5] Evan Dashevsky. "Features Only Power Users Know" Pcmag.

In other words, this means that a quarter of the world’s population is on Facebook every month.

25%

[6] Jon Nelson. "Earth" NASA.

As a result, we have access to hundreds of preference, behavioural, and demographic data for billions of

people.[7] Saleem Sufi. "What Did I Learn at Harvard…" SS.

Now what this means is that companies are able to take this data and build

models that are able to predict hidden attributes about us. Information that

we aren’t even aware we are sharing.

[8] LisaMarie Luccioni. "9 Keys To An Impressive Handshake" Business Insider.

To illustrate, consider a story taken from

Forbes magazine.

[9] David Carr. "Foreign Buyers Eyeing Forbes Magazine, a Chronicler of the World’s Wealthiest" the New York Times.

Now I’m sure you’re all familiar with the retail chain Target.

[10] Maria G. “Effective Logos" mariagdmt.

Well Target sent a customized flyer to a 15-year-old girl with

coupons for baby diapers, bottles, and cribs

two weeks before she even told her parents she was pregnant.

[11] “Pro-life Club Collects Baby Supplies for Needy Moms” Devon Prep.

Now the question you’re probably asking yourself is…

“ How did Target figure out that this high school year old girl was pregnant

before she even told her parents? ”

[12] Uniqueartdesigns. “Belly of Pregnant Woman” Zazzle.

As it turns out, Target has purchase history for thousands of customers. [13] Suzanne Lucas. “Should an Employer Increase Employee Hours with No Extra Pay?” The Balance.

With this data they are able to make accurate calculations like whether a women is pregnant,

and even her pregnancy date.[14] “How to Calculate Advertising” Groupon.

The scary part is, they aren’t even looking at obvious purchases like whether a customer

is buying baby clothes or pacifiers.

[15] “Blog Image Cash Receipts Dollar Paid” Amoils.

They look at purchases that might not seem like

they reveal a lot, like whether a women is

buying more vitamins than normal, or that she bought a purse that’s big enough to hold diapers.

[16] “Vitamins 1” celiac.org.

When information like purchase history is compared to hundreds of thousands of other

purchases within a data model, patterns and insights are revealed.

[17] “What is Data Science?” Berkeley.

This same concept can be used in a social media setting to accurately predict personal information such as:

sexual orientation, religion, political preference, gender, age, intelligence, whether you’re a drug

user, if you’re an alcoholic, etc.

All from what might seem like obscure information.

[18] “FB new” Smcubedconsulting.

As a result, whether we like it or not, social media companies like Facebook are continuously collecting

data on us and it’s not always for our benefit.

[19] Evaxebra. “Quantum Calculations” Flickr.

Unbeknownst to us, we are constantly revealing personal information about ourselves that these

companies are exploiting for profit.[20] “Business” Wadelitigation.

After all,

when it comes social media

you’re not a customer,

you’re the product.

[21] “Social Media Mobile Icons Snapchat Facebook Instagram” Marketingland.

Sources Images [1] Lee, Wilson. "My Last New Apple Member before X'mas ?" Flickr.

[2] Biagomala. "Keyboard" Flickr.

[3] Sharon Black. "Is Social Media Marketing Your Most Powerful Tool?" Rival IQ.

[4] Tapasparida. "Group of people" Flickr.

[5] Evan Dashevsky. "Features Only Power Users Know" Pcmag.

[6] Jon Nelson. "Earth" NASA.

[7] Saleem Sufi. "What Did I Learn at Harvard…" SS.

[8] LisaMarie Luccioni. "9 Keys To An Impressive Handshake" Business Insider.

[9] David Carr. "Foreign Buyers Eyeing Forbes Magazine, a Chronicler of the World’s Wealthiest" the New York Times.

[10] Maria G. “Effective Logos" mariagdmt.

[11] “Pro-life Club Collects Baby Supplies for Needy Moms” Devon Prep.

Images (cont.) [12] Uniqueartdesigns. “Belly of Pregnant Woman” Zazzle.

[13] Suzanne Lucas. “Should an Employer Increase Employee Hours with No Extra Pay?” The Balance.

[14] “How to Calculate Advertising” Groupon.

[15] “Blog Image Cash Receipts Dollar Paid” Amoils.

[16] “Vitamins 1” celiac.org.

[17] “What is Data Science?” Berkeley.

[18] “FB new” Smcubedconsulting.

[19] Evaxebra. “Quantum Calculations” Flickr.

[20] “Business” Wadelitigation.

[21] “Social Media Mobile Icons Snapchat Facebook Instagram” Marketingland.

Content Golbeck, Jennifer. "The Curly Fry Conundrum: Why Social Media." Jennifer Golbeck: The Curly Fry Conundrum: Why Social Media "likes" Say More than You Might Think | TED Talk | TED.com. N.p., n.d.

Hill, Kashmir. "How Target Figured Out A Teen Girl Was Pregnant Before Her Father Did." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 31 Mar. 2016.

"Company Info." Facebook Newsroom. N.p., n.d.

"How to Use Facebook Ad Targeting." Facebook for Business. N.p., n.d.

"How Ads Are Targeted to Your Site." How Ads Are Targeted to Your Site - AdSense Help. N.p., n.d.

Reilly, Michael. "Facebook Knows a Lot about Your Offline Life That It Isn't Telling You." MIT Technology Review.

Marr, Bernard. "4 Mind-Blowing Ways Facebook Uses Artificial Intelligence." Forbes. Forbes Magazine, 29 Dec. 2016.

Constine, Josh. "Facebook Chose to Fight Fake News with AI, Not Just User reports." TechCrunch. TechCrunch, 14 Nov. 2016.

Julia Angwin, Terry Parris Jr., Surya Mattu. "Facebook Doesn’t Tell Users Everything It Really Knows About Them." ProPublica. N.p., 04 Jan. 2017.