Introduction
Facebook and Google make money by selling your data. That’s it. They know everything about you, which means they can sell that data to advertisers in exchange for cold hard cash. There’s nothing wrong with this business model in principle—after all, they’re just using our own information against us—but it’s a slippery slope when marketers can use fake news to sway your opinion on products and services based on your profile. Still need convincing? Here are six ways that Facebook and Google use data analytics to make money off of you:
Facebook and Google are the world’s most valuable companies.
If you use Facebook and Google, you’re probably not aware of how much money they make from you. But it’s a lot. In fact, these two compaanies are the world’s most valuable companies by far–worth more than any other company in the world combined. They also make more than all of the companies in Apple’s top 10 list combined (including Apple). And if we include Amazon as well–which doesn’t even make it into Apple’s top 10–then those three companies alone would account for 54{b863a6bd8bb7bf417a957882dff2e3099fc2d2367da3e445e0ec93769bd9401c} of all U.S.-traded stocks!
Facebook and Google know what you like.
You’re not just a user of Facebook and Google; you are the product.
Facebook and Google know more about you than your friends do, even if they’ve been in your life for decades. They know where you live, where you work and how much money you make; what type of car or house or food or clothes (or shoes) that you like; which political party aligns with your views best; which sports team(s) keep them up at night with anxiety over who might win next year’s championship game…the list goes on forever!
Facebook and Google make money by selling your data.
You may have heard that Facebook and Google make money by selling your data. But do you know how they do this? First, they collect data on everything you do on the internet–every website you visit, every ad clicked on, every search term entered into Google. Second, they use algorithms to analyze this information and then sell it to advertisers in order for them to target their ads better than ever before.
What does all this mean for us as users? It means our privacy has been compromised for the benefit of these companies’ bottom line: Facebook and Google are currently worth over $500 billion combined (the most valuable companies in the world). And even though we can’t opt out of having our information collected without giving up access altogether (which would hurt both companies’ profits), these tech giants still have no incentive not use our personal information however they please because there’s no law against it!
Digital marketers use data analytics to sell more stuff to people like you.
- Data analytics is the process of collecting data, analyzing it, and using it to make decisions.
- It’s used by companies like Facebook and Google to improve their products and services.
- This means that digital marketers can use data analytics to sell more stuff to people like you!
The more you use a service like Spotify or Apple Music, the better they know your preferences (and how to sell them).
The more you use a service like Spotify or Apple Music, the better they know your preferences (and how to sell them). It’s not just about music–data analytics is used to make recommendations for all kinds of products and services. You are the product, not the customer. The more data they have on you, the more they can improve their product design and development process as well as marketing campaigns.
Marketers can use fake news to sway your opinion on products and services based on your profile.
You’ve probably heard of fake news, but did you know that it can be used to sway your opinion on products and services based on your profile?
Marketing agencies have access to a wealth of information about you, including your location and interests. They can then use this data to find out what brands you like or dislike, where you live and work and even whether there was any recent activity in the area (e.g., if there was an earthquake). This means they will know if a natural disaster has hit recently–and how far away from that location people would be willing to travel for food/water supplies or shelter from storms etcetera depending on their needs at the time.
If marketers know all this about us then surely we should expect them too right? Well yes but only if we let them by visiting websites which track us with cookies (which again is something most people don’t realise).
Companies know more about us than we realize, and it’s only getting worse as technology gets more sophisticated
As you might expect, companies are collecting more data than ever before. That’s because they can now track your every move online and on your smartphone. They use this information to personalize their products and services for you–and then sell it to advertisers who want to target their ads at you specifically.
The problem with this is that it’s getting harder for people to tell which news sources are trustworthy and which aren’t, so companies like Facebook have started using fake news stories as clickbait in order to get people clicking on them so they can show ads based on what those users have clicked on before (which was probably also fake).
Conclusion
We’re living in a golden age of data analytics. Companies like Facebook, Google and Amazon have access to more information about us than ever before. They know what we like, where we go and how often we do so (along with an endless amount of other personal details). This data is used for everything from targeted advertising on social media platforms like Facebook or YouTube (which makes billions each year), to selling products through their e-commerce stores like Amazon Prime (which made $2 billion last quarter alone).
