After the scandal of the Cambridge Analytica's use of Facebook user data., In this regard, many organizations and activists question the impunity with which some large multinationals have operated. Although at first there was talk of 87 million users affected, The latest media reports suggest that there were many more.
The big difference in this case is that now, in addition to using the data for commercial purposes, it was also used to unbalance the scales in many political processes, such as for example Donald Trump's election campaign or the Brexit.
For some years now, the use of social networks by political parties, especially to misinform users, has been well known. false content or spam through fraudulent accounts, especially on Twitter. As we said in another Zemsania article, there are already companies that have the objective of control Fake News, The company's social networks are becoming increasingly popular, despite the fact that there are more and more tools to distort reality that rely on the massive use of social networks by users.
But there is a big difference between exaggerating information or misleading through adulterated arguments, and deliberately stealing billions of user data for political purposes. In the United States, following Mark Zuckerberg's appearance before the Senate, more and more voices are being heard advocating for the traditional defense of private property that has prevailed in the minds of Americans since the birth of the nation. This double standard, that of supporting entrepreneurs on the one hand and freeing companies from excessive obstacles and controls and, at the same time, to defend armed to the teeth the individual freedom and privacy, The company does not make it clear where things will go from now on.
Americans must make a choice: either continue with liberal policies supporting and spurring entrepreneurship and wealth (whatever the cost), or to curb large companies like Facebook to minimize the misuse of data. In this second case, the logical example to follow would be the one adopted by the European Union with the new Data Protection Act. which will become effective on May 25, 2018.
At this point, we should ask ourselves whether the new European law that aims to empower citizens by giving them back the right to manage their data will be enough to curb the new fashion of to support electoral campaigns with private data.
What does the new data protection law say about social networks?
As we were saying, as of May 25, the new European data protection regulation will be applied. For this reason, the Spanish Data Protection Agency has set to work and has collected in several guides and infographics the keys to understanding what these changes mean and how they will affect our daily lives.
When it comes to social networks, as citizens we must be clear about our rights:
- Right to know. This means that we can know what they use our data for (who has it, what they use it for, to whom they can transfer it and who the recipients are). The most interesting aspect of this new regulation is the possibility of knowing to which persons or companies our data are transferred. In addition, we will be able to know if our data are used for profiling or automated actions and what the consequences are.
- Right to be forgotten. As of May, we will also have the right to delete our data completely in several cases. On the one hand, we will be able to request that a company (in this case, a social network) delete our data when it processes them unlawfully, when we revoke our consent, or when we object to our data being processed.
- Right to object to data processing. We can object to a company processing our data for personal reasons (unless the person processing our data proves a legitimate interest) and when the purpose of the processing is direct marketing. That is, when we know that a company is using our data for direct marketing activities (such as sending mass emails, for example) we can oppose the use of our data for this purpose.
There are other rights that, as citizens, we must be aware of to ensure the correct use of our data. These 3 points are a summary of how the new European data protection law will affect social networks in particular. Although these keys greatly improve the regulation that existed until now, we will have to see if large companies such as Facebook or Google comply properly with this new regulation. And they should do so, as the new law makes it clear that the regulation will not only apply to European companies, but also to companies worldwide when their activities deal with personal data of european citizens.
Despite the new right to oblivion included in the new data protection law, the debate on the use of data for commercial purposes by companies will remain open. It is clear that most of the revenue of companies such as Facebook that work with real user profiles comes from the companies that buy this data (approx, 60% of revenue compared to 40% of advertising revenues). In this case, we might wonder whether, even if we suddenly stop using social networks, our data will ever be ours again.