Is Facebook Free?

Author: Joe Pulido 8/22/2018

Is Facebook free? Have you wondered how did Mark Zuckerberg make billions if they charge you nothing? Well, sorry to burst your bubble but Facebook uses unstructured data to sell to other companies a sort of business to business model, so they can advertise to customers. That is the big chunk of where Facebook makes most of its money. Through our Facebook posts are otherwise known as unstructured data. Facebook is not the product, we the users are the product of the social media network known as Facebook. Tim Cook once stated that there is no privacy on Facebook and that is true in the sense that Facebook studies our posts and friends. Facebook also studies our purchasing habits by enabling companies to integrate the login API into their apps. You might not be aware of this, but the Facebook Messenger app also gets information about our phone contacts.

So how does unstructured data benefit Facebook? Unstructured data allows companies to get analytics on what people like based on posts. Facebook also has artificial intelligence in the background processes which lets them identify who is tagged in a photo and what kind of branded cloth you are wearing. This unstructured data can become powerful information once data can be organized helping companies strategize how to market to the audience. Facebook then sales this information to companies and the companies can advertise to Facebook users causing potential conversions and sales. Facebook benefits by selling information to a company, company then buy ad campaigns from Facebook and in return hope to get new sales and leads. For many individuals like myself, we use Facebook to keep in touch with distance friends, relatives, and loved ones. In an economy, everyone needs a financial resource and therefore look for ways to monetize our innovations. Facebook like many other platforms utilizes unstructured data a subcategory for Big Data. A trend that many other companies including mortar and brick are using. You might have heard this, but nothing is free not even the air we breathe.

For that we need trees and to get trees we need seeds. To get seeds, we need a resource such as money. They're to Facebook acquire its financial resources via our information. The only thing to do to prevent Facebook from getting our information is to deactivate our Facebook accounts but that won’t be too much help since other companies are also collecting data. The modern era of commerce will depend on our information to strive forward. The only thing we can hope the government can do is to regulate the social media giant to prevent them from violating human rights in abusing the use of our information and preventing hackers from stealing information to do societal harm. Privacy should never be overlooked but neither should progress I think that using unstructured data can help us gain insightful knowledge of how to attract people into our business but can also be used for many other purposes, not just commerce. Going forward I believe privacy would change in terms how we view it and use it. As for me, I am going to keep using social media even though I know now that they are collecting data. I believe in progress and therefore don’t want to go back into days without social media. I do believe that rules must be updated on how Facebook shares our information to prevent its users from being casualties. What about yourself are you planning on deactivating your Facebook account? Leave a comment, share, and like at bottom of the page. Would like to hear your opinion on this matter.