text: Your FB profile could become a big threat to privacy,Gadgets, Techgig.com
  Home Popular News Gadgets Your FB profile could become a big threat to privacy
  Posted By : TechGig Editor|9 months ago	|2990 Views
  After the Supreme Court's historic judgment declaring right to privacy a fundamental one under the Constitution, all eyes have been on Aadhaar. As per critics, the massive data collection process for the 12-digit biometric identification project, which has information of more than a billion Indians, could be used for identity theft, government surveillance and security breaches.
  As per a Hindu Business Line report, at least 21 Aadhaar leaks or data breaches were detailed till April 27 this year.
  However, some experts say social media websites such as Facebook are a bigger threat to privacy than Aadhaar is. Vivek Wadhwa, a tech entrepreneur, writer and a distinguished fellow at Carnegie Mellon University's College of Engineering, says tech companies such as Apple, Facebook and Google have gained so much information and so much power that they can rig elections. "Who are you more worried about: companies that are selling you and lying to you at the same time, or governments that are trying to operate for its population? That is why, I am less worried about Aadhaar than I am about Facebook. Facebook is a bigger threat to privacy than is Aadhaar. Both need to have very tight security," Wadhwa, who has come with a new book, The Driver in the Driverless Car, co-written with Alex Salkever, told The Economic Times in a recent interview.
  "People who are using smartphones for the first time would have believed that Facebook and everything Facebook teaches is Internet. Look at what happened in America: Facebook facilitated Russians hacking the US elections and it made a lot money out of it. Imagine if they are taking control of Indian elections," Wadhwa added.
  Let us now see how social media companies have misused users' private data for their own benefit.
  In April this year, Facebook reportedly allowed advertisers to target "emotionally vulnerable" users as young as age 14 in Australia and New Zealand. It monitored their posts and used algorithms to identify and exploit them by allowing advertisers to target them during their "most vulnerable moments", as per a report by The Australian.
  The company collected the information on a person's moods, and then reportedly divulged the same to advertisers who used the information to target them with ads.
  In September, Facebook was hit with a €1.2m fine in Spain after the country's data watchdog found it breaking privacy laws. The social network breached laws designed to protect citizens' information and privacy on three occasions, according to the Spanish authorities.
  The regulator found Facebook had failed to inform users how their data would be used as it hoovered up the details of millions of people in Spain. It said Facebook had failed to educate users on how their personal information such as religious beliefs or personal interests would be used for advertising. It added that Facebook had illegally tracked visitors to its pages who had not signed up to the social network using cookies.