Internet and anonymity are too far from each other; however, some Internet users consider themselves skilled enough to enable a VPN and breathe a sigh of relief. But social network tracking isn’t limited to tracking your location. Moreover, this information isn’t the most necessary one to collect. It’s no longer a secret for people that even governments may use social media to gather information about people and their activity. Several years earlier, when people stated they feel stalked by social media, society thought that people who take this view were crazy. Nowadays, such statements don’t surprise anyone at all.
Social media privacy is rather a widespread issue that needs to be fixed. We understand that you can’t manage all your social media app settings, but the more you know about the ways these websites track you, the better for you. By the way, not only social media does it. When you purchase some goods or services online and automatically check the boxes, you often agree with tracking. Many college students who order assignments from academic writing services suffer from their carelessness; that’s why they’d better purchase assignments from a reliable helper like this bachelor thesis writing service.
Well, let’s start our journey to social media tracking. The more you know, the better for you and your security.
Facebook knows where you are
This company can easily cooperate with the government and give the police all information about your location. When you send messages and are unable to do geolocation tracking in settings, you may not worry about it. But how often do you think about such details? We often allow tracking without a thought and remember about it only when something happens. There is special software that lets users see the exact location of any other user they want, and they don’t even need to be friends with him or her. It’s shocking.
If you want to enable location tracking, open your Settings, open Privacy, find the Location settings section, and turn off monitoring for the Facebook app and Facebook Messenger.
Facebook knows your views on life and preferences
You may be surprised, but what can you tell about the fact that Facebook knows what you think about the current situation globally and in your country and knows your political affiliation? People who live in a democracy may not feel, whereas other countries strictly monitor users’ posts and then will be judged because of the “wrong” way of thinking. Social media monitors your activity and then forms an opinion about your political views. You may even check this information in the Ads section of settings.
Instagram and its ways of collection of data
Recently Instagram was called the most invasive app because it gathers more than 70% of user’s data. There are many hacking applications for Instagram, you’ve probably heard that it tracks the location of all your photos, even if you are unable to track them? Instagram adds all your photos to Photo Map. Well, it’s not everything it can do. Are you ready to get shocked? Instagram gathers the following information:
- Messages history;
- Photos and videos;
- Login information;
- Contacts from address book;
- Face ID data;
- Geolocation;
- Your activity in the Instagram app;
- What devices are connected to the app.
It’s a huge list. Be afraid of uploading the pictures from your home; no one knows who will get access to this data and for what. The most obvious and widespread reason why social networks collect data is to show relevant advertising, but you mustn’t blindly trust social media networks.
Twitter privacy policy updates you must know
Twitter is one of the most honest and transparent social media networks. You don’t need to search for the guides on the Internet to understand how to find out what information it collects. Open the Privacy section in Setting and go to Twitter Data. Here is the list of data that is usually gathered by Twitter:
- Payment information;
- Contact data;
- Your personal information (location, name, and so on);
- Text messages;
- Log data;
- Links you upload to your profile and so on.
The information is also shared with advertisers, but the data they share is anonymized. Anonymity is the key advantage of any service besides social media. We all should take the example from students. When they need to purchase examples of literary analysis, they evaluate the safety and anonymity of the service first and then make a purchase.
All social media know your social circle
They know more about your family, friends, and other people you sometimes see than you can even imagine. Twitter, Instagram, Facebook, TikTok, and all other networks know all your friends and can identify who are your closest ones, whom you rarely meet, whom you date, whom you like, and so on. Have you ever noticed how relevant the friend suggestions in social media are? We understand the reason for it is obvious now. Access to phone contact and email gives social media this power.
The more you know about the information social media gathers, the better for you. If you worry about it, you may consider yourself a caring social media user that is very rare now. Disable all necessary settings and stop feeling someone watches you.
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