Technology and Social Media Websites: Are They Stealing Your Information?
By Cara Giardina
Everyone has information. Whether it’s your criminal record, birth certificate, or even the password to your email. However, it is up to you to decide whether or not you would like someone else to know said information. Well, some media and large technology companies want to know all of everyone’s information, one way or another.
Let’s start off with Facebook. Facebook is an extremely large social media website, with about 2.32 billion monthly users worldwide. That’s pretty big, right? Well, compare it to this. There are about 8 billion people on earth. That means that about ¼ of the total world population uses Facebook.
However, Facebook has had many scandals lately. But do we know exactly why? It’s because they have been keeping track of account information, such as passwords, ID, posts, pictures, and they even track what you do on Facebook. Seemingly normal for a social media website, right? Well get this; they’ve been sharing it with other social media and technology giants! Media like Microsoft, Spotify, and Netflix were all sent information from millions of people’s accounts, seemingly in secret. Specifically, Facebook allowed Microsoft access to virtually all people on “Friend’s List” and allowed Netflix and Spotify to read private messages between users. This all sounds pretty bad, right? Well imagine that you’re a Facebook user, and you just had a personal conversation about something with your best friend. You just talked about something, and you don’t want anyone to know about it. Well, guess what? Your secret has just been exposed to two huge sites that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Let’s move on to Apple, shall we? A Houston lawyer sued Apple on the 28th of January about the FaceTime eavesdrop bug. Essentially, how the bug works is that if you try to FaceTime someone, and they don’t pick up, you can hear their conversation. That means that Apple can hear all of your calls, right? And that’s really creepy. If you were trying to have a private, meaningful conversation, and then all of a sudden your friend is eavesdropping on you, how would you feel? I’m not sure about you, but I’d be pretty mad. The bug has been updated, but one would still be suspicious. I know I am!
Now let’s go to Amazon. You guys know what Alexas and Echos are, right? Yeah, well, guess what? They record you. A couple in Portland had their conversation recorded and sent to a random contact of theirs. Pretty spooky. Now imagine it was you being recorded. Plus, how do you guys think that Alexas know to respond? They have to listen to every word you say until you say something that even slightly resembles the now common phrase, “Hey, Alexa.” We don’t know exactly what they plan to do, but it’s safe to say that they may keep tabs on every conversation that you ever have.
Like I said, everyone has information. And apparently, large companies want to learn that information, and use it to their advantage. How? We’re not sure. When? No clue. All we know is, they’re out for it, so if I were you, I’d be careful!
Let’s start off with Facebook. Facebook is an extremely large social media website, with about 2.32 billion monthly users worldwide. That’s pretty big, right? Well, compare it to this. There are about 8 billion people on earth. That means that about ¼ of the total world population uses Facebook.
However, Facebook has had many scandals lately. But do we know exactly why? It’s because they have been keeping track of account information, such as passwords, ID, posts, pictures, and they even track what you do on Facebook. Seemingly normal for a social media website, right? Well get this; they’ve been sharing it with other social media and technology giants! Media like Microsoft, Spotify, and Netflix were all sent information from millions of people’s accounts, seemingly in secret. Specifically, Facebook allowed Microsoft access to virtually all people on “Friend’s List” and allowed Netflix and Spotify to read private messages between users. This all sounds pretty bad, right? Well imagine that you’re a Facebook user, and you just had a personal conversation about something with your best friend. You just talked about something, and you don’t want anyone to know about it. Well, guess what? Your secret has just been exposed to two huge sites that have hundreds of thousands of subscribers.
Let’s move on to Apple, shall we? A Houston lawyer sued Apple on the 28th of January about the FaceTime eavesdrop bug. Essentially, how the bug works is that if you try to FaceTime someone, and they don’t pick up, you can hear their conversation. That means that Apple can hear all of your calls, right? And that’s really creepy. If you were trying to have a private, meaningful conversation, and then all of a sudden your friend is eavesdropping on you, how would you feel? I’m not sure about you, but I’d be pretty mad. The bug has been updated, but one would still be suspicious. I know I am!
Now let’s go to Amazon. You guys know what Alexas and Echos are, right? Yeah, well, guess what? They record you. A couple in Portland had their conversation recorded and sent to a random contact of theirs. Pretty spooky. Now imagine it was you being recorded. Plus, how do you guys think that Alexas know to respond? They have to listen to every word you say until you say something that even slightly resembles the now common phrase, “Hey, Alexa.” We don’t know exactly what they plan to do, but it’s safe to say that they may keep tabs on every conversation that you ever have.
Like I said, everyone has information. And apparently, large companies want to learn that information, and use it to their advantage. How? We’re not sure. When? No clue. All we know is, they’re out for it, so if I were you, I’d be careful!
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