We live in an age where we rely on social media for practically everything. With 2.34 billion people worldwide using social media it has become easier to access information and find a specific thing from a persons life. We willingly give out our information on a day to day basis to connect with friends and family.
When we join social media we are often encouraged to provide as much information as possible about ourselves. We are asked to provide Name, age, orientation, where we live and more. It was only after Snowden released the NSA documents in the summer of 2013 that people started paying more attention to their settings and their privacy.
He will not divide us
After reading the Snowden articles:
34% of people who were aware of the surveillance programs have taken a step to protect their information
15% of those people Have started using social media less often
31% of those said they were concerned with government surveillance on social media
Shia Laboufs protest live stream against Donald Trump which ran 24/7 in Queen's, New York, was taken down due to trolls and people saying controversial things. Shia then moved the live stream to a secret location and only had a flag saying "He will not divide us". 4chan users used the constellations and flight patterns to figure out the approximate location of the flag. When they narrowed that down they got someone to drive honking their horn in the area to find the flag. After they found the flag, they took it down and replaced it with a trump hat and a pepe picture.
That is just from observing the surroundings of a live video. A lot of famous youtubers struggle with this problem. Fans will go out of their way to find out where they live to simply get an autograph and picture.
Internet providers could soon be able to sell your Information
A recent bill was passed in congress of the United states of America, allowing internet providers to sell costumers online activities such as search history, What you buy and what sites you visit. This bill allows them to sell all your information to the highest bidder essentially without your permission. All this bill needs is to be Signed by the president to be cleared.
Social Media
Facebook can track what you do around the web
Facebook uses trackers that take signals from the cookies that are dropped from the websites you visit that act like a button. These trackers can consume and spread large amounts of data without you realizing it. Companies take advantage of these trackers and use what you just looked at to give you tailored made ads on the side of your time line