The privacy issue

Facebook has been this column’s carrier since 2011, or about five years after this immensely popular social networking site opened its doors to anybody in the world who claimed to be 13 years of age or older. Note: BizLinks started in 2002.

Today, Facebook claims to have more than 2.2 billion monthly active users in almost all countries in the world with Internet access, except in those that actively block it, like China, Iran, Bangladesh and North Korea.

Here some other interesting facts about Facebook put together by Zephoria Inc., a digital marketing consulting company based in the United States, which you should know:

1. As of June 2018, 1.47 billion people on average log onto Facebook daily and are considered daily active users.

2. In December 2017, there were 1.74 billion mobile active users of Facebook, and 1.15 billion mobile daily active users.

For the first two preceding paragraphs, the figures represent double-digit growths from the previous 12 months, a rate that has been continuing during the past years.

3. Every minute on Facebook, 510,000 comments are posted, 293,000 statuses are updated, and 136,000 photos are uploaded.

4. In May 2013, 4.75 billion pieces of content was shared daily, a 94 percent increase from August 2012. Facebook has not updated this data since then.

5. Facebook has more monthly active users than WhatsApp (1.5 billion), Twitter (336 million) and Instagram (one billion).

Being used

All these help us understand why Facebook enjoys immense commercial success, having chalked $40.653 billion in gross revenues last year mainly from advertising. In fact, the marketing of Facebook has become a serious study that aims to take advantage and cash in on the billions of active users.

Problem, though, is that others are also using Facebook’s popularity, and not for the noblest of intentions.

In its early years, Facebook was often confronted about breaches on the privacy of users and the psychological effect on users. For the former issue, Facebook redesigned its service to enable users to screen out people who they felt should not access their pages.

And yet, with friends sharing what one has shared with other friends, and so on, it was virtually difficult to contain whatever information one wanted to keep well within the originally intended small circle of people.

Other issues that eventually cropped up as concerns for Facebook users were the growing number of fake news that would get shared a hundred thousand fold in a matter of hours, hate speeches, and depictions of violence.

Facebook continues to respond to all these by introducing some form of censorship, albeit not 100 percent effective.

More recently, Facebook has been besieged by trolls, not those animated in movies, but unique to social media channels like Instagram and Reddit. Initially, they were simply unorganized small groups with advocacies that did best to annoy others.

Then, some bright guys decided they were best employed as armies that viciously attacked personalities or issues. Then, some brighter guys thought trolls – and millions of fake profiles – had better uses in more sophisticated environments.

Where does the issue of privacy come in?

Security breaches

In 2013, a 30-year-old American computer consultant named Edward Snowden passed on confidential security documents that he had downloaded from the US National Security Agency without authorization to members of the media.

The resulting exposés published in a number of prestigious international publications spoke of mass surveillances on emails and instant messages, of secretly accessing Yahoo and Google data centers to collect information of account holders, and even spying on companies and charity organizations.

All these were made possible by using powerful programs like Bullrun (to undermine data encryption), MUSCULAR (a surveillance program that taps undersea cables), and Black Pearl (program targeting private networks).

The extensive invasion of privacy was written throughout 2013 and 2014 through Snowden’s help, and elicited discomfort and concern from affected governments like Germany, companies like Brazil’s Petrobas, and partners in espionage like Australia and the UK.

Aftermath

Snowden’s action had led to debates on whether he should be regarded as a hero or a traitor, and more importantly, on the ethics of the NSA’s actions to steal personal information of people even those who had nothing to do with national or global security concerns.

The level of spying in the digital world as revealed by Snowden had been extensive and intrusive, making one cringe at the thought that nothing in one’s life can ever be regarded as private, even today after the NSA’s activities were never limited or sanctioned after Snowden’s leaks.

Social media has become polluted by dishonest intentions, just like Facebook had become a tool by Russian agents in influencing the outcome of the 2016 US presidential elections. Facebook now has removed hundreds of foreign pages that were found to be part of a coordinated misinformation campaign.

In the aftermath of the Snowden exposures, it appears that even emails and instant text messages on popular services like Yahoo and Google are not safe from prying eyes that have decided to make you a target.

Reading about the extent of how government security agencies can play the espionage game makes one sit back and ponder just how much of a monster has been created by the advent of technology and the transmittal of information in a digital world.

Are all these conveniences really worth the risk to your invasion of privacy?

Facebook and Twitter

We are actively using two social networking websites to reach out more often and even interact with and engage our readers, friends and colleagues in the various areas of interest that I tackle in my column. Please like us on www.facebook.com/ReyGamboa and follow us on www.twitter.com/ReyGamboa.

Should you wish to share any insights, write me at Link Edge, 25th Floor, 139 Corporate Center, Valero Street, Salcedo Village, 1227 Makati City. Or e-mail me at [email protected]. For a compilation of previous articles, visit www.BizlinksPhilippines.net.