It’s recent news that Meta was fined a record amount of $1.3B for violating GDPR rules and sending information about EU users to the US.
I’m personally happy about this decision, and, if you follow me on my socials, I’ve never hidden my position against Meta and their products.
The main point is I can’t stand for a company that keeps selling my information and, at the same time, get bombarded with ads for things I don’t care about.
And that leaves me as the only chance not to be part of this crazy game the deletion of all my accounts. Which, in practice, means losing most of my contacts.
I’ve already told you in my previous post I had to start again using IG, even if I completely dislike it.
The real problem is the majority of the people using Meta don’t (or don’t want to?) realise they are treating us as the product. These tools use our information to create profit and, not only we don’t get a cent from that, but we are also forced to utilize a less usable application. How many ads, sponsored posts or suggested users do you get compared to the content shared by the people you follow?
If Meta will no longer be able to target their ads to users in Europe, I bet they will lose a lot of money. Which is, in the end, the core of the whole stuff.
On the other hand, all these apps are free and this is a huge hook for a vast number of users.
I perfectly understand that none of the big social media platforms is a charity organisation, however, I think a clearer way for these companies to create revenue would be to move to a subscription model. And, as a consequence, be transparent to their users. Nevertheless, this will open other problems: first, it will cut off all the incomes deriving from ads, because at that point there will be no valid argument to keep them.
This will have a great impact on all the brands now relying on Facebook/IG ads to plan their marketing: they will then have to review their strategies and take a different approach completely.
Second, a lot of people will not like the new model because they will be required to pay to use the apps. Without understanding we are already paying by “gifting” our data to them.
Since the mass of users is so heterogeneous, all those who are not interested in photography or in sharing media content will take the subscription model as a bad thing. I believe they prefer to have their data sold and used rather than pay the equivalent of a coffee to use any of the apps.
In the end, it’s a complicated story.
One thing I believe for sure: privacy needs to be protected and rules need to be set and respected to keep everyone’s data safe.
Take care and talk soon!