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Privacy Rights in the Digital Age

Social media profiling

by Sandra Jowers-Barber

The corporate practice of accumulating personal information on social media (and other Internet sites) and using it to compile a detailed portrait of an individual user to be used for a variety of commercial purposes.

Social media began as a way for people to meet new friends and to reconnect with old ones; however, the conversation on the use of social media has turned unfriendly. One reason for that turn is the increase in the number of accusations that information from online users is gathered, stored, and sold to commercial companies. Major players, Google and Facebook, for example, admit to collecting personal user data. Both have online privacy policy websites that provide information on what type of information they collect and how and why it is used. The Google Privacy and Policies website provides extensive details on how it uses information as well as how and with whom the information is shared. Facebook's Data Policy provides users a similar service. The website for Twitter, Twitter Privacy Policy, gives users Twitter's procedures for collecting, issuing, and sharing data.

How have these privacy issues affected users? There has been a change in the way many users view these social media sites. The excitement of being able to express personal opinions on issues and share personal information and intimate details is not as pronounced as it was in the first stage of the social media wave.

What is the profile being created of you? Can you see it? How can you be in control of it? How will it be used and who will use it? Those are just a few of the questions that individuals, governmental agencies, and countries are asking. There are concerns about the use of profiles created by agencies. Online users now realize that information shared on the Internet is also finding its way into employer files and credit agency reports. In spite of the concern over what information is being stored about users of websites, arguments are made that the value of social media outweighs concerns of privacy invasion. The profiling of users can be taken to extremes, and both academic and popular articles address the impact of such profiling on the public.

Employers readily use social media as part of their background checks on prospective employees. Trying to have a conversation about privacy in any form on social media is counterintuitive. Yet users rarely consider the thought that such postings, made in an arguably relaxed and informal social arena, could be subject to the serious process of seeking employment. An issue for many people who viewed social media suspiciously from its outset was what would happen with user data gathered by media site hosts. Its use and impact on the lives of individuals was debated.

Profiling of individuals by gathering data from their time spent on the Internet takes several forms. Major department stores usually claim that they collect data only on what their customers buy, how much they spend, and how often they shop. Profiling of that kind may indeed be benign. There is no way to confirm, however, that companies to whom the information is sold or shared will be as benign in their use of the data. Assumptions about people can be made by analyzing their use of the Internet. Medications bought, magazines read, and sites visited can provide data on individuals that in turn can create profiles used for many unknown reasons. The unknown continues to cause concern.

Online users now realize that information shared on the Internet is also finding its way into many different platforms. Employers use the Internet and social media to profile the activities of those who visit their sites. They also focus on the postings of prospective employees. Credit reporting agencies, some of which may be partners with websites, also share and use information collected from websites.

Arguments are made by Google and Facebook that they gather information to enhance their websites for their users. Supposedly consumers benefit from profiles created from the data gathered on their websites. Nevertheless consumers were not informed that their information was being used. Pharmaceutical companies may send unsolicited letters referencing medications for conditions to persons who sought information from online websites in the privacy of their homes.

One of the early major concerns about establishing a social presence was the lack of certainty on the protection of personal information. Uncertainty and a focus on profiling came later. Now governmental and social agencies and academic institutions routinely collect data that provides profiles of their clients and students. What has changed is that individuals are pushing back against the practice and demanding that these agencies provide information on what they do with the data that they collect.

See also: Background Checks; Credit Reporting Agencies; Data brokers; Employment eligibility verification systems; Invasion of Privacy; Marketing; Social Media; Social media technologies; Spam

Citation Types

MLA 9th
Jowers-Barber, Sandra. "Social Media Profiling." Privacy Rights in the Digital Age, edited by Christopher T. Anglim & JD, Salem Press, 2016. Salem Online, online.salempress.com/articleDetails.do?articleName=PRDA_0197.
APA 7th
Jowers-Barber, S. (2016). Social media profiling. In C. Anglim & JD (Ed.), Privacy Rights in the Digital Age. Salem Press. online.salempress.com.
CMOS 17th
Jowers-Barber, Sandra. "Social Media Profiling." Edited by Christopher T. Anglim & JD. Privacy Rights in the Digital Age. Hackensack: Salem Press, 2016. Accessed May 30, 2026. online.salempress.com.