Take Your Charge Of Your Data Footprint

The real price we pay for social media is being constantly tracked and having our personal data harvested. Alix O’Neill attempts to reclaim her privacy online

Poor Mark Zuckerberg is having a rough time.

Even before the scandal that rocked his digital empire earlier this year, younger users were getting Facebook fatigue. In February, eMarketer predicted that more than 3 million under-25s would either quit or stop using the platform regularly in 2018. Just a month later came the Cambridge Analytica (CA) furore, when an undercover investigation revealed the company (now closed) had inappropriately collected data from 87 million Facebook profiles – and used it to influence voter opinion in the US general election.

I lost interest in Facebook when my newsfeed started to feature nothing but babies and Brexit rants. But I’m obsessed with Instagram, which, like WhatsApp, is also part of the sprawling Zuckerberg empire. When an acquaintance asked me about a recent trip to Paris and enquired after my son (who she’s never met) it made me question how much of my life I was putting out there – and how this personal information might be manipulated. Social media is supposed to be about connection and community, yet our online identities are being used for political and commercial gain. But is deleting Facebook the answer? With its global reach extending beyond the original network, it seems impossible to fully disengage. We can, however, be savvier about what we share.

HOW DO COMPANIES EXPLOIT DATA?