When we initially signed up for social media all those years ago, joining involved allowing social media companies certain permissions to access and analyze our data. At the time, signing such a contract with the companies seemed like a positive thing, as it would allow algorithms to connect us based on our relationships, our interests and how we lived our lives, which is how the platforms were initially advertising. State Sen. Saud Anwar, MD Today, we know these social media sites aren’t simply using our data to improve their services. For years, they’ve collected cookies and gathered our information to sell. And they’re still doing it, more flagrantly and less ethically than ever. I know I still remember Cambridge Analytica’s actions in 2016, for instance. In the resulting five years, things haven’t exactly improved. What makes this much worse is the recent news from earlier this autumn that Facebook leadership knew several of its services, most prominently Instagram, were negatively impacting youth mental health at the same time it appealed and advertised to youths and children as low as 13 to sign up for their services, trying to grow its userbases. In the process of signing up for the service,…
Read More
Opinion: Facebook/Meta must stop gathering data on minors – The CT Mirror
