Hey there! After your overwhelming response on our article “5 facts about Apple that I can bet you don’t know” (If you haven’t read, Please click on the link) today we present to you the second article in this series. We all know that facebook has revolutionised the way we communicate and interact with each other, It is currently worth an amazing $250 Billion! , Not bad for a company that was started in a Harvard Dorm.
Today we are going to tell you 5 facts that you don’t know about facebook.
1. Emotional Contagion
In 2014, Facebook launched a secret experiment with Cornell and the University of California to manipulate the emotions of 689,003 users. Tests on “emotional contagion” were conducted to deliberately feed and filter misinformation through users’ personal news feeds. One test hid positive posts from friends in order to provoke the expressions of negative feelings. The other did the opposite and hid negative posts from friends to promote positive feelings. The sad part about this was that users were not aware that they were the subject of experimentation and Facebook refused to apologise for this intrusion.
2. Federals sued facebook
Interestingly, After years of gathering evidences, US Federal Trade Commission sued facebook in 2011. It claimed that Facebook “deceived consumers by telling them they could keep their information on Facebook private, and then repeatedly allowing it to be shared and made public.” Facebook quickly settled and along with Twitter and Google is now forced to undergo a privacy audit every two years for the next 20 years. But Still, Till the time you keep using facebook, Always remember, You are their product.
3. Messenger
As mobile usage is booming, More than 80% of facebook’s members use facebook through mobile. In 2014, Facebook took advantage of this trend by moving messaging functions to a separate app that gave company access to users’ phone. Messenger’s privacy settings allow it to access call and SMS records , record audio and video and read contact data like emails and phone numbers. Facebook insists that they won’t use the permissions to spy on people , even it was found tracking logged-out web users in 2011. Privacy advocates fear that a repeat of 2009 accident revealing users’ private messages could expose personal data and contact info.
4. T & Cs aren’t useless!
Facebook users are among the most careless people who accept the T & Cs without reading (Here I would like to add, That you might be wondering that nobody reads T&Cs, but what I am trying to say is that when registering for a website where your personal information is at stake, At least google some of it’s disadvantages) and this gives facebook a lot of control over the users. There has been a constant complain that facebook changes it’s policies very quickly , often making them more complex and putting information, such as your name, picture and gender, in the public eye by default.
“The big question is why Facebook feels the need to keep changing its privacy settings,” asked Professor Woodward. “It doesn’t seem to do this for increased functionality or extra services, so it’s difficult to conclude there is not something else behind it.”
The problem is that most users do not have any “meaningful understanding” of what terms and conditions mean. He added that most users have “little or no understanding” of how their personal information can be used.
5. Under Review
Over 864 million users use facebook daily, Sharing 4 billion pieces of content that need to be reviewed for objectionable material. Despite billions of dollars of revenue, facebook outsources the delicate task of reviewing posts to third workers making a meagre $1 an hour. Workers have reported that they are forced to see shocking material such as beheadings and suicides! Even more troubling, employees of outsourcing firms are hired without any security checks and are not prevented from downloading posts that they review.
What we wanted to convey with this article is that you should know that facebook isn’t as safe as you think. We are not stopping you from using facebook, But rather bringing the essential to light. I hope you liked this article! Do share and spread awareness!