The cost of our digital social life

These days, there is a certain level of society and peer pressure to join social networking sites and moreover these are free of cost to join. I hardly post stuff on these websites but use them to keep an eye on my network, latest trends and birthday reminders. Like me, I believe you have tried the IQ challenge or played Farm villa, accepted the continuous pop ups app-invitations from friends; you have left no stone unturned to not only give access to your contacts, your photo library, alarm clock from your device but also agreed to share information of your friends as well.

So even if you are a privacy-settings-guru & have a “privacy illiterate” friend, which I bet most of us have, still your data is floating around the web. Most of these social networking platforms are constantly monitored and evaluated: what you buy at the shops and online, where you are at any given time, who your friends are and how you interact with them, how many hours you spend watching content or playing video games. These are not random mistakes of bad interface designs but carefully crafted gimmicks that trick users.

“Privacy is dead, and social media hold the smoking gun.”
Pete Cashmore, Mashable CEO

To a certain extent, it’s about user experience. But it’s much more about targeting, retargeting, programmatic advertising, marketing automation, reading market trends, consumer behaviours and so on. With this example you understand what I want to convey: when I search for a shoe purchase, even after closing the search bar, I keep getting shoe ads on my social platforms as well as other websites.

To some extent, I personally find it useful as it makes my life easier to know more about the latest trends and sales but on the other hand I am fed up with being badgered to make a decision, to make a choice to purchase. There are certains sales ads that pursue me across the websites I browse, persuading me that if I don’t buy my favourite shoes today it will disappear from all the shops on the earth and I will never find them again, let alone at the best “discounted price” I am being offered only ordering now. Did you get that feeling?

These personalised patterns in interfaces are used to increase sales due to inattention of buyers, to achieve quantitative indicators of metrics in the short term, to obtain personal data, or even cause addiction to a product.

We are all aware of the Cambridge Analytica scandal in which the data of 87 million Facebook users was shared with the digital consulting firm. In fact, evidence suggests that despite the Cambridge Analytica scandal, we have become even more disposed to sharing data in exchange for “better” and cheaper services. A global study published in May 2018 by the Global Alliance of Data-Driven Marketing Associations (GDMA) highlights that personal data sharing has grown by nine percentage points, from 16 percent to 25 percent.

We create data almost every hour of every day. Be it through mobile use, social networks or e-commerce sites; every digital move generates new data. Data is a powerful tool that’s easy to misuse. Our data lets brands push invasive adverts on us. It enables companies to discriminate against us. On the other side our data, when used right, can do a lot of good for us, and the rest of the public. Where data is used for scientific benefits or help fight discrimination or strengthen democracy. Data has now surpassed oil as the world’s most valuable resource, so the data economy is not going away anytime soon.

Most of the time users do not have meaningful choices. So it is entirely rational that they do not waste time with privacy policies or privacy settings. Streaming platforms that autoplay new episodes, encouraging binge-watching behavior. Digital junk foods, from social networking apps to video streaming platforms, promise users short-term highs but leave depressive existential lulls in their wake. The most common of them: automatic subscription to the newsletter due to an invisible checkbox, adding additional products to the cart, difficulty in account deletion and personal data deletion, as well as notifications of lost profits.

On May 25, 2018, the GDPR, the General Data Protection Regulation, came into force, imposing transparency obligations on companies and establishing access rights for those whose personal information could be collected. I think another solution would be enhanced consumer education, since greater transparency isn’t going to mean all that much if people aren’t aware enough of how to take advantage of it. Ultimately, the decision to continue, or stop, sharing our data comes down to every individual. It’s your data, it’s your decision. With the bright and dark side of data sharing highlighted here, maybe your decision will be a little bit easier.