Social Media User Microtargeting

Social Media User Microtargeting

The advent of the internet and social media platforms was met with notable excitement due to their potential interactional benefits. Users identified such capabilities as instant messaging, sharing of pictures and videos, and the ability to trace long-lost contacts from a concentrated pool of subscribers. Facebook established itself as a leader in the social media industry, amassing a substantial user base. The trend was followed by a decline in the use of traditional advertisement channels as television, billboards, radio, and print in favor of direct marketing via social media digital fronts. However, such a transition was, and continues to be, marred by cases of unethical data mining without the knowledge of users. Facebook, in particular, has been on the limelight due to illegal data mining for advertisers as well as political affairs. Illegal microtargeting can be addressed through legislative action and civic education to enlighten users on the potential ways of safeguarding their data.

Social media service providers have resulted in the mining and selling of client data for profitability causes. The emergence of microtargeting and personalized advertised was motivated by the availability of a ready pool of data from which companies can identify potential customers and share their promotional messages (Dayen, 2018). Such a discovery prompted a worldwide adoption of social media adverts that are designed to reflect the interests of users or those of their social networks. Such social media providers as Facebook employ algorithms that monitor user activity and compose a profile that is sold to advertisers (Komando, 2016). Diaz (2018) likens the handling of social media users and their contacts by Facebook to the exchange of merchandise in the marketplace. The company notoriously pawns its clients’ information to high bidding promoters, a move that can be interpreted as profit-motivated. Such behavior diverges from the original perspective of communication and unifying people across the globe..

One of the main factors promoting the perpetuation of illegal data mining and selling by social media providers is the ignorance of users. Diaz (2018) discusses the irony of Americans learning the role of Facebook in sourcing their private information to compile psychographic databases used to aid President Trump’s campaign by the Cambridge Analytica company. The author further comments on how active users of the platform unknowingly provide personal information, which is used to earn the company millions in promotional revenue. Moreover, the allowance of external parties to secretly gather clients’ data through their Facebook pages is bewildering (Komando, 2016). Such applications gain access by exploiting users’ nativity in assigning or limiting permissions. The continued illegal collection of user information is what Dayen (2018) refers to as the “surveillance economy.” Nevertheless, Facebook and other digital platforms would not be able to mine the personal information if clients understood the implications of privacy rights and undertook mitigative strategies.

Social media data mining practices promote unfair discrimination in marketing. Among the many evils of microtargeting is the use of discriminative advertising practices that focus on a specific population while hindering others from accessing product information (Dayen, 2018). The writer highlights how marketers target gullible people to further their sales as well as the potential of Big data mining to bar minority groups in the U.S. from accessing housing adverts. The same approach was used by Cambridge Analytica to identify people whom they could influence to alter their perspectives on the country’s presidential elections. The company focused on such biased factors as personality, gender, geographical location, sexual orientation, wealth, and race, among others, all of which give rise to discriminative promotional messages (Diaz, 2018). Therefore, microtargeting not only is unethically done but also opens doors for more questionable practices.

The state has a responsibility to control microtargeting and oversee the activities of social media providers and digital marketers. Presently, there is a lack of notable efforts by the U.S. government to regulate advertisements in the social media arena, despite its right to do so through the Federal Trade Commission (FTR) (Dayen, 2018). The government’s efforts in controlling the volume of television adverts as well as banning promotions threatening the wellbeing of the public, with such examples as tobacco products and collection of information from underage children, provides precedence for acting on illegal data mining from social media accounts. Diaz (2018) also discusses the role of policing, citing the novel California Consumer Privacy Act, which requires social media houses to declare the kind of information they collect from subscribers and how they use it. Such interventions from the governments, both federal and state, can help protect citizens from microtargeting.

Unethical microtargeting can be addressed through legal oversight and public education to inform the masses on available strategies of data protection. Such concern emanates from the rampant mining of private information from social media users for targeted promotions. Facebook has reportedly been making millions of dollars by selling client dossiers to promoters, who engage in discriminative advertisements for profitability. Such behavior is encouraged by, among other factors, the ignorance of subscribers who fail to keep track of access permissions. The state can exercise its regulatory capacity to cushion the public’s privacy from unethical service providers and marketers.

References

Dayen, D. (2018, April 10). Ban targeted advertising. Retrieved from https://newrepublic.com/article/147887/ban-targeted-advertising-facebook-google

Diaz, J. (2018, March 24). Facebook scandal’s lesson: Your persona is a commodity. Retrieved from https://www.sfchronicle.com/opinion/diaz/article/Facebook-scandal-s-lesson-Your-persona-is-a-12777786.php

Komando, K. (2016, March 11). Facebook is watching and tracking you more than you know. Retrieved from https://www.foxnews.com/tech/facebook-is-watching-and-tracking-you-more-than-you-know