Ben Kepes, tech commentator, 46
Lurker or oversharer?
I’ve been on Facebook for about 12 years, and I’m a heavy user. As such it would be naive of me to think I hadn’t left a massive digital footprint over the years. I also use Google apps, gsuite, Google hangouts – basically everything Google does. What’s in the bag: My Facebook archive – which extends to nearly a gigabyte of data – contains thousands of photos, messages, videos and contact information for my friends list. I came away after trawling my archive not with any sense of horror at how much data Facebook has about me, but rather a deeper appreciation of the scale of the social graph that Mark Zuckerberg and his cronies has created. I’ve always been comfortable sharing my life online, and downloading my archive simply confirmed to me that I act accordingly.
We visit Facebook to communicate, share photos and videos and to arrange events – the amount of personal data that Facebook holds about me is to be expected. Google’s data aggregation feels more insidious than Facebook’s. Whereas Facebook looks at us and overtly captures what we do, it feels more like Google is observing us out of the corner of its eye and tracking things which, perhaps, verge on the creepy. That’s not to say I am surprised about any of the information Google has about me.
My perspective has always been that if I get a better experience – whether it’s being suggested a cafe when I’m on the other side of the world, or connecting with friends or whatever – I’m happy for brands to waste their money sending me advertising that I’m going to completely ignore. That for me has always been the implicit contract between myself and the social networks.