Facebook
The site’s collection and use of personal information:
Facebook Could Mine User Data without User Authorization
The application “thisisyourdigitallife” told users that the personality app was collecting
anonymous information for psychological research. The app, produced by Global Science
Research, required users to agree to the terms of the app before granting the application
access to their Facebook data.
Facebook Knew Its Data Was Being Misused
In 2015, journalists informed Facebook about the misuse of user’s data. Many of its newer
employees were wizards in the emerging field of data science, capable of gleaning
business insights about Facebook users. The creator of the “thisisyourdigitallife” app, Dr.
Alexander Kogan, said that the data was being gathered for academic study. He was
insistent that at the time he was not engaged in improper activity.
Facebook Collects Your Images Using a Facial Recognition Database
Since 2011, Facebook, according to PC World, has been developing technology for facial
recognition. When you tag a photo on Facebook, it uses facial recognition technology to
learn more about what that individual looks like. The same thing is true of your photos
when others tag you.
Facebook Uses “Shadow Profiles” to Collect Non-User’s Data
Facebook is using shadow profiles, according to information gathered from a number of
sources, to monitor non-Facebook users. Facebook also uses third parties and builds
shadow profiles to monitor the activity of nonusers.
Facebook Performed Psychological Experiments on You without Your Permission
Facebook executive, Sheryl Samberg, issued an apology to Facebook users after it came to
light that Facebook had conducted experiments on more than 700,000 users without their
consent. Ironically, when you read the apology, you see that Samberg never apologized for
the psychological experiments that Facebook conducted but instead for the fact that
Facebook did a poor job of communicating about the experiments with users.
