IF YOU'VE been on Facebook long enough, you’ve probably heard about the Cambridge Analytica scandal. Basically, it’s Facebook users’ data being misused by a third party entity, resulting in so much uproar from everyone. So much so that a call for everyone to delete their Facebook accounts have gained much momentum.
Although, if you dig a bit deeper into this scandal, you’d find out that it’s directly in relation to the Trump presidential campaign. You kneejerk reaction might be that it won’t affect you at all since we’re all here in the Philippines and we’ve got bigger problems to deal with. But, take a second there and pause. Think about it. That’s Facebook. It’s the same platform we are all on. Billions of users all over the world. It doesn’t really matter much if the scandal is in the USA or not. The point that I’m trying to say here is that it’s user data that was being used. It could’ve been yours and mine.
So, my question for you now is this -- do you really know how much Facebook knows about you?
After all those quizzes you took and those face-morphing “harmless” memes you had some third party “app” do for you, have you stopped and asked how much data about you that you gave out to Facebook? Now that you’re thinking about it, are you scared now?
You don’t believe me? Do a quick Google search -- "how much does Facebook really know about you.” You’ll get links to articles dating back to even from a couple of years ago.
Let me make it a bit easier for you.
Have you noticed why the ads you see on your Facebook news feed are so targeted at you? It’s so targeted, it can be creepy that Facebook knows what you like and want. Check out your ad preferences through this link. You’d be surprised what exactly Facebook knows about you.
Thinking about leaving Facebook or leaving but not really leaving? I wrote about it back in January.
I guess, in the end, my advice is to just be careful. I understand that you may trust Facebook in full but I’m just saying to be careful with the kind of info you give out. And I mean not just Facebook.