Topic > Implications of social media as a regime of surveillance and at the same time as a regime of commodification

Over the past decade the world has experienced a significant boom and the establishment of numerous social platforms that have become part of people's social lives. Nowadays, almost every person in the world is, in one way or another, part of this global sensation and advancement of social technology. Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, Snapchat and Whatsapp are examples of social networks commonly used nowadays where users share and upload content to their colleagues. Social networks have made the world a global village where all you need is the use of easily available devices, such as phones, tablets, laptops, and access to internet connectivity to connect with any person in another part of the world. However, the advancement of social technology has not been as smooth as it seems, as some have seen it as an opportunity to observe and monitor people's activities on social media and their daily activities in real life. This vice is commonly known as surveillance and in most cases is defined as socially immoral as it violates an individual's right to privacy and freedom of expression. Say no to plagiarism. Get a tailor-made essay on "Why Violent Video Games Shouldn't Be Banned"? Get an Original Essay Taking Facebook and Google as examples, I will delve into the implications of surveillance and commodification that these social media giants have. Facebook Inc had 2.19 billion monthly active users in the first quarter of 2018. That's more than a quarter of the world's population. Facebook managed to achieve this despite being banned from more than a billion Chinese. The company is valued at more than $435 billion. Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been subjected to congressional hearings in the United States. Lanier, a Silicon Valley innovator, said: His friends were among the first to create advertising-based models for programs like Google and Facebook. “As the technology has improved, it has evolved into a model of continuous surveillance and full-blown behavior modification, and that is something that is really not survivable.” Former National Security Agency contractor Edward Snowden ripped Facebook in a tweet after the social media giant suspended Cambridge Analytica, a data analytics firm that worked for President Trump's campaign. Facebook accused the company of failing to delete improperly collected data from tens of millions of accounts. Snowden said: "Companies that make money by collecting and selling detailed documents about private lives were once clearly described as 'surveillance companies,'" Snowden said. “Their rebranding as 'social media' is the most successful deception since the Department of War became the Department of Defense.” Cambridge Analytica (CA) is a voter profiling firm that provided services for the presidential campaign of Donald Trump in 2016. CA was looking for American Facebook users. They offered to pay users to download their personality quiz application on Facebook called thisisyourdigitallife. About 270,000 installed the app in exchange for about 2 dollars collected information from their Facebook profiles as well as detailed information from their friends' profiles. Facebook then provided this data to the app's creators. More than 50 million users' data was collected, Cambridge Analytica whistleblower Christopher Wylie said fear that the data may have been handed over to Russians aiming to interfere with U.S. elections. He said that iFacebook data was used to target voters during US President Donald Trump's 2016 election campaign. A business model based on extensive data surveillance and charging customers for opaque targeting users based on this type of extended profiling will inevitably be misused. The real problem is that billions of dollars are being made at the expense of the health of our public sphere and our politics, and crucial decisions are being made unilaterally and without recourse or accountability. Google was founded in 1998 by Larry Page and Sergey Brin, doctoral students at Stanford University. It has long created the most sought-after stage of the new media era. It really has morphed into a word equivalent to “search.” We currently know Google as a search engine, as well as an innovative organization with numerous applications and diligent organizations. Among the most important applications is Google Maps, which is the most used navigation software. Google Analytics: a site tracker, how to send emails to Gmail, Google Chrome: a search engine. Since advertised Google search and Google apps are not free. According to Google (2017), his salary comes from DoubleClick promotions and placement. It involves sponsors only paying for a certain amount of clicks that people have made on their website. Google's biggest advantage is the data it collects from customers that allows them to modify ads based on user preferences. Google uses password security passwords, targeted ads, and customer preferences. Unlike another search engine, Google's white interface is simple and not teeming with useless news or data. Google's appearance is clear, free, and puts a lot of effort into gathering information about its customers to get better results. According to Smythe (1981) In a demonstration of commodification, a group of spectators are not only watching the promotions, but emit an image the impression of picking on the sponsors, watching it. Obviously the intention was built when Google and the web didn't exist, but it's not entirely different from the new media era. Nowadays we have Google, which is the medium, which promotes the collection of people's information and sells it to sponsors. The commodification of a group of spectators is impossible without surveillance. Google oversees data about us in three notable ways: it collects information about us when we use the search engine, spares and duplicates any useful or harmful data about us, and captures images of the great outdoors far and wide. Google obtains data from our use of their administrations. It collects data from customers' gadgets, log data, including the customer's phone number, duration of calls, contact the show, furthermore obtains an IP address, which enables the customer's present area. Google's privacy policy states: "We use the data we collect from most of our administrations to provide, maintain, secure and improve it, to grow new ones, and to secure Google and our customers." Google Privacy Policy (2018). The more apps Google uses, the more Google knows about you. Cookies, installed in our portable or imaginary gadgets, are an exceptional innovation that recognizes our gadgets. That is to say, regardless of how much the client deletes, downloads, or where it is logged in, that innovation ties all of its program's movement to an individual. Observing, Google stores data, even those closest to it didn't have a clue. I feel like social media is being used.