With the Cambridge Analytica saga, everyone and their dog has a strong opinion about their data privacy, and data protection. But do they really know enough about it, or are they just jumping on the buzzword of the year and adding noise without value to the discussion?
Yes, folks like Facebook and Google, having a mountain of data on us, have a responsibility to come up with a robust framework around what can and can’t be done around user data.
But we, as consumers, and first and foremost, humans (AKA currently arguably the most intelligent species on the planet), owe it to ourselves to be smart about things, and try to have a balanced view about most things in life.
If you’re gonna be scammed or influenced by an ad, without doing your own research (which is readily available these days), then you’ll be scammed, online or offline.
The reality about mega platforms like Google and Facebook, and all the data they have about us, is really to sell us on products that they know will be relevant to us. The more data they have on us, the better their bottom line.
On the flip side, the more data they have on us, the better their services are to us as well. I mean, think about it, since the advent of hyper targeted advertising, I’m glad to say goodbye to ads served to me that have 0 relevance to me at all, like a bra or women’s shoes. And I’m thankful for that! It just makes the overall web surfing experience a lot better. (I’m open to ads because that comes with free).
To all the people saying “Facebook ought to pay me for all the data i’m providing”, well, try selling your “preference for Hawaiian pizza” and “likes snowboarding and wrestling” yourself to data platfomrs and see how much you get.
The impetus for this post came about when I was talking with a female colleague, and we were talking about an ad featuring Ronaldo for Shopee, an online shopping app (see cringe-worthy ad below). I was saying I never saw that ad, and most of the ads served to me were about finance or wealth courses.
So even as colleagues working in the same industry in the same company, we got a vastly different ad experience whilst surfing the web, and this wouldn’t be possible without them knowing something(s) about us.
Data is not a bad word. Ignorance is.