Facebook's Disturbing Data Tactics
Yo, just how evil is Facebook? I’m sure if I asked, “Hey, did you know Facebook might be evil?” many of you wouldn’t bat an eye. You’d be like, “Oh, probably.” We’ve talked about Cambridge Analytica in the past, which was a huge scandal. And we all know these tech companies—not just Facebook, but all of them—make their profits by selling ads. They collect our data, sell it to people who then advertise to us, or advertise directly themselves. So, no surprises here. We all kind of accept this, but just how manipulative and evil can some of these tech companies be? I don’t think we’ve fully explored the depths of depravity in these algorithms.
One such example came from a book called Careless People, a memoir by Sarah Frier. She writes about her time working at Facebook from around 2011 to 2017, detailing certain practices. Facebook even went to court to try to prevent her from promoting the book, but it went viral anyway because she revealed some truths—or alleged truths. One of the most disturbing things she mentioned was that Facebook could detect when someone deleted a selfie off their phone.
They were really targeting the 13 to 17 year old demographic, a very vulnerable group already dealing with adolescence and growing pains. It’s a very particular group to advertise to. They found they could detect when girls were deleting their selfies and then serve them beauty ads or ads for products to capitalize on their feelings of insecurity. They also tried to detect if someone was sad or depressed based on hashtags or what they were viewing and then serve them ads about self-improvement or even plastic surgery. They were doing stuff like that.
I think this is crazy, considering how vulnerable that age group is. Detecting deleted selfies and then serving beauty ads is next level horrific. I know we’re all hypocrites because we’re probably viewing this on a Facebook app and not going to delete WhatsApp or Instagram anytime soon. I acknowledge that hypocrisy, at least my own. But that’s messed up. Just a little bit? Maybe it’s just me, but I find it incredibly messed up.
Anyway, y’all take it easy till the next one. Peace.
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