Facebook named as the biggest privacy offender
It’s nothing new that social media platforms collect huge amounts of data. But which platform presents the worst picture when it comes to the privacy of its users? A study has investigated this question. There are only losers.
User data in social media
Just recently, Facebook received another warning from consumer advocates. A unilateral change to Meta’s data protection guidelines was supposed to allow the company to use the complete data of users of its social media platforms for AI training. Many similar cases are already known from the past.
Privacy comparison of the platforms
But other companies in the social media sector are also not known for their consumer-friendly handling of user data. The data removal specialists at Incogni examined.
The company looked at five different areas:
- Data collection and retention – How much information about users is collected and how long is it stored?
- User control and consent – How much control do users have over the type of data collected? What are the default settings? How visible are the options?
- Violations – How many violations of the law and data leaks have there been so far?
- Transparency – Which and how much data is passed on to authorities?
- Ease of use – How easy is the privacy policy to understand? How many steps does it take to delete a user account?
Facebook as the biggest culprit
Although no platform stands out in a positive way, it is not surprising that Facebook is by far the last in the rankings. Meta’s platform collects the most data, has had by far the most violations of regulations and is also a disaster when it comes to user-friendliness.
The latter, however, applies to almost all social media examined. This was confirmed by Emilia Jasinska-Dias, a spokeswoman for Incogni, to TechRadar.
Everything seems to be geared towards people not fully understanding what is happening with their personal data. Emilia Jasinska-Dias
According to their own statements, the analysts were most shocked by the length of time data was retained. Even after an account was deleted, information was sometimes retained for up to six months. These platforms include Facebook, Instagram, Messenger, YouTube and Discord.
How to protect yourself
The best way to protect yourself is of course not to have an account on a social media platform in the first place. Otherwise, according to the experts at Incogni, users should definitely dig through the settings and use every opportunity to object to the collection of data.
In addition, there are often alternative providers such as Mastodon, Nostr or Matrix, which pay more attention to the privacy of their customers.
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