Meta finally put a price on our PII
Lo-and-behold my dear Edge Readers!
The cyber citizens of EU have finally learned how much their Personally Identifiable Information (PII) is worth in the today’s market! As one of the biggest marketeers of PII, Meta, has forced me today to choose whether I will fund their privacy-violating projects OR shall I bow down to my digital overlord, and give my digital wealth to thee!
OH - what is that? I think I can hear someone rumbling something … something like ‘Hey David, wty the f*ck do you even use Meta products anyway?’. AH! I do hear it now. I will take some of your time to express my opinion on the usage of Social Media, before continuing to rant about the new Meta policies.
The Poor-Man’s Guide to the Digital Life
Today there is Internet. This interconnected web of computers that allows us to exchange data and messages, such as this, throughout our tiny Blue Dot (and perhaps further). To stay connected, I see that as a truly remarkable value, as I wouldn’t be able to meet soo many of my colleagues or friends without this global connectivity. Now of course, as internet users statistics rise - the business bloodhounds start to sniff a fresh new way of making money. It is a great vast market that is unclaimed and available to claim for everyone - just take a bite, a slice, and you may get your wealth.
But what does it mean for us, poor cyber citizens. Well the internet by itself should be free - while it truly is not, since most of us do require to subscribe to our ISPs to get access to the web, the content on it was meant to be Free to use. Of course this changed over the decades since its availability. Monetization heavily influenced the today’s web. Something that is promoted as ‘Free’ is not truly free - you pay. You do not pay it with the currency you are most familiar with (cash), but you do pay with another currency, which is called PII (Personally Identifiable Information).
How much is my PII Worth?
Well, until recently, it was hard to tell. But several web platforms are already offering subscription to their service in return to not deliver you Ads. That service cost is a good way to evaluate the worth of your Private Data.
The so-called ‘Personalized’ Ads are the ones that rely on the obtained data about you. The websites need to track you in order to build a whole Digital Persona about you, so that they can they target you with advertisement that they seem to believe it is of interest of you.
And companies who advertise their products, would pay quite a significant amount of money to be able to target you - the Digital Persona who meets the imaginary criteria for the product of their interest. And how do they target you? Well they pay platforms like Facebook (Meta) to advertise their products.
It seems my Digital Persona is worth around 12 EUR a month.
As I delved into the intricate layers of my online identity, I stumbled upon a shocking revelation. My digital persona, the meticulously curated representation of myself in the vast wilderness of the internet, was appraised at an astonishing value of 12€ per month.
In a world where data reigns supreme and personal information has become an invaluable currency, this seemingly insignificant sum spoke volumes about the true weight of our online presence. It was a moment of realization that propelled me into a state of wonderment and reflection.
The Pretentious Deduction of Living Below a Rock or Embracing the Evil to Prosper
Living below a rock, metaphorically speaking, can be an approach some individuals opt for when it comes to not embracing the world of social media. By abstaining from these platforms, one can find solace away from the constant influence of curated feeds, societal pressures, and the addictive nature that can consume one's time. It offers a chance to focus on authentic human connections and personal growth, without the constant need for validation in the virtual world. On the other hand, embracing the evilness of data privacy violations that come with social media can lead to prospering in the digital age. However, this path comes at a cost to one's privacy and personal information. It's a trade-off between convenience, connection, and keeping one's personal data out of the hands of corporations. Both choices require careful consideration of what truly matters and the values one holds dear in today's interconnected society.
I have not found solace, my dear Edge Reader. I can’t say I didn’t try - I did, but the solace offered in return was the feeling of being left out of something. The Media Giants, those who trade our data, have setup the world in their way. The experiment was deemed successfull. It is not about me and you, who may be able to abstain ourselves from Social Media, but it is because we are only one tiny grain of sand in the vast ocean of desert. And the rest of the desert is all hooked up on the Social Media IVs.
I hooked up myself too. But I will try to minimize the dosage of outbound data traffic I give, while exploiting the treasures of Internet. We can all be hackers in a way - so why not hack our way into Digital World the way we feel is acceptable. And there are ways to do that, but maybe we will discuss those in a separate diary entry. Lets rant some more about Meta’s new policy.
To Pay To be Free or To be Free by Paying
This are our two choices. Either you pay by subscribing to Meta in order to access their products, or you pay with your PII currency. Most of the people will choose to go for the falsified Free version. So lets maybe do a quick check on what Data we expose by doing so.
Account Information: This includes your name, email address, phone number, and other details you provided when creating an account.
Profile Information: Information you add to your profile, such as a profile picture, birthday, gender, interests, relationship status, and location.
Content: The content you create, share, or upload, such as photos, videos, messages, and comments.
Communications: Information about your communications, like the people you communicate with the most or the groups you are part of.
Connections: The people, pages, accounts, hashtags, and groups you are connected to and how you interact with them across the Meta products.
Usage Data: Information about how you use their services, such as the types of content you engage with or the frequency and duration of your activities.
Transactional Data: If you make purchases on their platforms or use their payment services, they may collect information about these transactions.
Device Information: Information from and about the computers, phones, connected TVs, and other web-connected devices you use, including IP addresses, operating system, browser type, and other device identifiers.
Location Data: Depending on your device settings, this could include precise location data derived from GPS, Bluetooth, and Wi-Fi signals.
Information from Partners: Data from advertisers, app developers, and publishers can send Meta information through the Facebook Business Tools they use, including your activities on other websites and apps.
Inferences: Meta also uses the data it has about you to make inferences about your interests and preferences.
I have to admit when I was investigating this, and so that list just keeps going on and on, I got shivers all over my skin. It is truly scary the amount of data they collect about us, while we are innocently interconnecting with our families and friends, to share our memories or adventures throughout our lives.
A tiny bit of solace may be found in where Meta states that this data is contained only within their products - meaning they promise not to sell it to third parties. Whether we can trust that or not, it’s up to each individual.
However it is worth mentioning Meta’s business model.
Meta's business model is built on keeping user data within its ecosystem to enhance the targeting of ads. That's why they offer sophisticated advertising options to businesses, allowing them to reach very specific audiences without directly handing over personal data.
From business perspective it makes sense that the interest of Meta is to keep this valuable data to themselves for their own monetizations. However, this does not mean they do not sell our data - they do, but in a passive way, where they charge their business partners in order for them to get the Digital Personas to whom they will sell their own products.
Text, Privacy and Sell’d’Soul
So where we at? Do we succumb to the pressure of the giant digital overlords, or do we seek solace below the rocks. I say: neither. I say, lets embrace the digital world that is given to use and lets take it back into our hands. The data that they are obtaining from us is only as worthy as the information they provide which is linked to actual you.
If you are concerned about this, you can still use Facebook, but maybe use an Alias instead of your real identity. Maybe do not post pictures of yourself or your family, which could link your alias to your real identity. Limit your data-transactional activity on it. Have an account just to be part of the world your family and friends live in.
If you are not too concerned about it - it is OK. It is ok to embrace the world without hindering yourself to anonymity. If the data they use about you is linked to personalized Ads, that is the lesser Evil. What everyone is worried is that we may not trust that promise - justified or not, there are probably petabytes or exabytes of our data on global scale, which even mass-surveillance cannot truly consume less alone store somewhere for a longer period. If you are not Target-Of-Interest, you should be just fine.
Albeit I would encourage everyone to be data-cautious. If we would never see an ocean before, and we would just start to learn to swim in it - it would be wise to learn also about other potentially adversarial inhabitants of the ocean, before we continue swimming further.
The same applies for surfing the web. Continue to surf and enjoy its benefits, but be cautious about potential predators that could target you, if you are not at least a little cautious about your surfing journey.