Ever wondered why Facebook knows so much about user habits? Because in addition to tracking how users click on pages or ads on Facebook, the tech giant appears to be buying sensitive data from users, including their household income, the types of restaurants they frequent, and even how many credit cards they have in their wallets.
According to a report by an independent news organization in the United States, since last year, Facebook has collected a large amount of confidential information about users, including “personal investable assets of $1-24,999” and “total household income between $100,000 and $125,000”. The report also shows that Facebook may have more data on buying users’ offline activity than we thought.
While many people don’t mind that Facebook has a lot of data at its disposal, it is a sign that its surveillance capabilities are very strong, even more powerful than the government. For example, in 2015, the Hong Kong government requested information from Facebook more than 70 times to assist in various criminal cases.
This reflects Facebook’s concern that we can directly or indirectly monitor our lives and hide the use of sensitive data.
If they use the data at their disposal and piece together the data they buy from third parties and analyze it, they can accurately understand our daily lives, and the power is often unexpected. And in addition to Facebook, don’t forget that tech leaders like Google, Apple, Microsoft, and Amazon also have this huge power.
Nowadays, cyber surveillance has become one of the world’s focal points, and the alarm of data security has sounded around the world. While enjoying the convenience brought by big data, we should also pay attention to the privacy protection of individuals and how enterprises collect and use data to avoid unwitting use of personal data.
