Facebook

Facebook 

Facebook. I’m told that a lot of people use it, but I don't see the appeal of it. Aside from its general addictiveness, it also gives your data to places like Cambridge Analytica to use to sway your vote, and it also keeps your password in a text document.

The main reason I don’t use Facebook, or any social media really, is because of how addictive it is. I spend enough time on useless activities, I don’t need to spend more time stuck in a perpetual cycle of looking at a feed.

Facebook does not safeguard their users’ private information. Aleksandr Kogan made an survey app that collects personal information from a user’s Facebook profile, and the information of the user’s friends. Those who took the survey had agreed to some of their information being used for research purposes, but their friends made no such agreement. And the information gathered was not even for research, it was to create adds to change their opinions. This information was used for that purpose in the 2016 election, Brexit, and the Mexican election. This event created a lot of controversy and forced some changes, but while the company itself may not have been involved in the actual activities, but the fact that it is possible is concerning.

And although Facebook said that during the previously mentioned event that Cambridge Analytica didn't get people’s passwords, they aren’t very secured. Facebook employees stored people’s passwords in plain text files. Facebook says that no evidence of anybody using this information for bad things, but that’s essentially saying that they haven’t found any evidence yet.

In conclusion, this is why I don’t use things like Facebook.