With the recent surge of startup SM companies like Twitter, Facebook, and Snapchat capitalizing on people’s personal information through social media, the discussion of privacy and just what exactly is acceptable, needs to come into focus. There are hundreds of companies springing up to suck up your data like a vacuum cleaner and find some way to profit from it. Every time someone goes online and creates a social media account/profile they are putting themselves out there and receiving no compensation for the risk. Instead, companies like Snapchat and Instagram, etc, are becoming rich by selling your demographic data and advertising
If your presence online generates revenue then why are you not getting paid your share of that revenue? The social media economy is as backwards as it can be and so far it’s users are content to let billions in revenue go to the companies alone. The discussion needs to take place regarding just what exactly should be legal for a company to sell when they peddle information about you to, advertising companies. Even the recent controversy about the amount of data the government forces companies like Twitter to hand over is totally debatable and challengeable.
If your exact location, words you speak and write, and even other more personal information about you in the case of users of such devices like Fitbit that track your bodies data and sync it with your computer, are made available to Advertising companies and/or the government to use how they like and to store for an indefinite amount of time. The time to raise suspicions and voice questions about accountability in social media is here and it shouldn’t be delayed another moment longer.