Number of Posts: 8
Posts 1 - 8
Facebook Faces a New World as Officials Rein In a Wild Web
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 17.9.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | censorship, Facebook, marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | Facebook’s head of global policy management recently agreed to remove anything that violates the Vietnamese law from the social network. Governments around the world (even in the US) are increasingly trying to keep control of what's happening online. As a result, governments and big tech companies such as Google, Apple, Facebook or Amazon don't always agree with each other. On the one hand, big tech companies want to have more control and power, and on the other hand, nations want to gain more control over people's online behvior. Facebook's desire to expand everywhere (e.g. in China) is one of the reasons for today's struggle between tech companies and nations. Facebook also faced some issues in Europe and Africa.
Image Description | Photograph of people using computers in a computer room, map of Facebook's users, two women laughing in front of a board displaying social media icons, Mark Zuckerberg and other people running in China, Mark Zuckerberg, his wife and daughters, glass building, people in front of a thumb-up sign, woman, crowd (some of them are using their phones), and people on their computers.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, Facebook, female(s), male(s), smartphone, social media
The 'empowered consumer' doesn't get much say
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 16.4.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, social media, threat
Summary | The perceived multiplication of choices in consumer culture, for example when buying a plane ticket (optional luggage fees, insurance fees, prioritized boarding fees, etc.), just looks like an advantage for the consumer on the surface. In the end, we end up paying more and giving away our data. The data will in turn be used to milk consumers even further by knowing to which advertisements they are particularly susceptible.
Image Description | Airport check-in area.
Image Tags | female(s), male(s)
How to Protect Your Privacy as More Apps Harvest Your Data
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 2.5.2017
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, marketing, privacy, smartphone, threat
Summary | Many smartphone apps can be used for free, or rather one does not have to pay money to use it. However, if the app is not from a non-profit organization, users pay in some other way that may be obscure to them. Usually free for-profit apps collect data abou their users that they can sell to advertisers. The only way to protect oneself from this is to carefully read the terms and conditions, even if they are in legalese. If one does not like the level of privacy provided by an app, the only certain way to avoid data exploitation is not to download the app.
Image Description | Illustration of a hand holding a smartphone where eyes are hidden behind the app icons.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone
Justice Dept. calls Apple's encryption fight 'a diversion'
Newspaper | Washington Post
Date | 10.3.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | law, marketing, privacy, smartphone, threat
Summary | Ever since the FBI asked Apple to unlock a terrorist's iPhone, a huge debate around user privacy has ensued. Other tech companies side with Apple with the position that aiding the FBI at the expense of user privacy would open the gate for masses of future cases. The Justice Department however accuses Apple of purposefully making unbreachable smartphones, which may be good for user privacy (and thus for profit) but a huge problem for the police to be able to investigate criminal cases.
Image Description | Hand holding an iPhone.
Image Tags | hand(s), smartphone
Free Tools to Keep Those Creepy Online Ads From Watching You
Newspaper | The New York Times
Date | 18.2.2016
Language | English
Country | U.S.
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, threat
Summary | Many companies track potential customers' internet activity so that they find out when someone, for instance, has the flu and will likely respond to flu medication advertisements. They collect data about all users when they visit a tracking website and then tailor advertising to specific target groups. This is a violation of our privacy because this process is very obscure and it is difficult to protect oneself from it but there are a few softwares one can get to stop companies from tracking one's online activity.
Image Description | Hands typing on a laptop keyboard.
Image Tags | computer/laptop, hand(s)
Niedlichkeit hat ihren Preis
(Cuteness has its price)
Newspaper | Die Zeit
Date | 20.1.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, selfie, threat
Summary | A new popular app in China called Meitu lets users edit their selfies. The process includes a beautification filter which enlarges the eyes and adds glitter and a rosy hue to the selfie. The app however suspiciously asks for permission to a lot of user data which does not seem to be necessary for an image editing app. The app likely collects all this data about their users so that they can sell their information to advertizers who want to target specific groups. All free apps have a hidden price.
Image Description | Selfie with the Meitu beautification filter.
Image Tags | female(s), selfie
"Wir kennen die Menschen"
("We know the people")
Newspaper | Welt
Date | 6.3.2017
Language | German
Country | Germany
Topic Tags | Facebook, marketing, privacy, threat
Summary | Facebook is collecting huge amounts of data about their users and they are not being entirely clear when they state their terms and conditions. Many uses do not realize that Facebook also records what they do outside the platform when they surf online. This way Facebook can create very detailed user portfolios that they can sell to advertisers so that they can target a very specific group.
Image Description | N/A
How to see what Twitter thinks it knows about you
Newspaper | Telegraph
Date | 18.5.2017
Language | English
Country | UK
Topic Tags | marketing, privacy, threat, Twitter
Summary | Twitter is spying on its users, even outside the app. It compiles or guesses information about the users and their interests to sell to advertisers for targeted advertising. Much of the guesswork they have to do is off but they collect lots of data about each user and try to guess their gender, for instance. Users can change their privacy settings so that Twitter does not track their activities on other websites and apps.
Image Description | Reuters image of silhouettes holding smartphones in front of the Twitter logo and a graph with statistics.
Image Tags | logo, smartphone, Twitter
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