Imagine how much people have been sharing online, with friends and even the public. This includes photos, status updates, locations, all that while tagging friends who may not be aware they are being connected with photos, events, and places.
It’s not even limited to Facebook. No matter how little you share, all the meta data involved in just about anything you do online can constitute your digital persona.
All of these digital crumbs, so to speak, paint a digital picture of us, which bots, machines, and even data scientists, can lead to our digital makeup. Add to that the evolving technologies of facial recognition and machine learning — this means tech companies might know more about us than we do.
And this is extremely useful to anyone who needs to do any customer targeting. Ask advertising agencies and marketers. In fact, ask Facebook. Did you know that the social network may have the capability to listen in even when we are not actively sharing information or using the mobile app?