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  1. Social Media – A Doppelganger in the Cloud
    1. Social Media Profits
    2. Data Collection/Privacy

Social Media – A Doppelganger in the Cloud

Social media has changed the landscape of the American culture. People can now be connected to others across the country. In the blink of an eye, thousands of people can see a post by a user. In this age, information is shared quickly without a filter. Most of these services are free. Instagram, Snapchat, Facebook, LinkedIn, and Twitter are all free services; granted, some do have premium features. How do social media giants offer their services for free?

Social Media Profits

Most people are able to easily sign up for a social media account and use it for free. The companies behind these platforms have to be making money, but how? Advertising. Every user’s activity online is recorded. This data is then shared with advertisers. When a user searches for “Nike shoes” on Google, in many cases, an ad appears on Instagram or any other social media site. AI is used to help create powerful ads containing “Nike shoes” and then place the ad on an individual’s social media feed at the right time [31]. By creating ads that are more efficiently targeted towards their audience, social media giants are able to charge companies more to advertise on their platforms.

Data Collection/Privacy

The issues of artificial intelligence and data privacy run parallel to each other. Companies try to collect as much data as they can for each user so that they can provide more targeted advertisements with the help of AI. At first, the use of AI in advertising does not seem to have adverse effects; however, the issue at hand is the type and amount of data collected by social media platforms about each user. Companies keep track of how long a user stays focused on individuals’ posts/advertisements, what the user “likes,” what videos they watch, and so on. By keeping track of all this data, social media platforms have a digital copy of their users. It has been said that social media knows individuals better than they know themselves. A simple, similar example of how this is true is discussed during a Ted Talk. During the talk, speaker Jennifer Golbeck recalls a scenario involving Target

A 15 year old girl had received coupons from Target in the mail for baby products two weeks before she had even told her parents that she was pregnant. How did Target know she was pregnant? Target keeps track of their customers and what they purchase. By doing this they are able to compare purchases to thousands of other purchases. By comparing this data, they are able to find common patterns. They then take those patterns and suggest what the user might buy [32].

In the same manner, social media platforms keep track of all of its users’ data and are able to use that data to hyper-target ads to users. This can influence the user’s purchases more than they realize. The EU has taken steps to implement user privacy. One study found “display advertising became far less effective at changing stated purchase intent after the EU laws were enacted, relative to display advertising in other countries” [33]. Social users need to decide how much information they are willing to give up to use social media and other resources for free. To make sure that tech giants are not taking advantage of consumers, there also needs to be regulations established concerning the use of individuals’ data and integration with AI-led marketing.

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