Facebook came under fire in Australia recently when an internal Facebook document was leaked to the press which had been prepared by two Australian Facebook executives setting out the results of an investigation or “sentiment analysis”.  In this analysis the social media platform reported that it can monitor when users, are feeling 'overwhelmed', 'defeated', 'stressed', 'anxious', 'nervous', 'stupid', 'silly', 'useless' and a 'failure....' and this information can be used by advertisers to target their campaigns.

The reason that this has caused such a stir in Australia is because the report specifically noted that the information and status updates of teens as young as 14 years old were examined and the results could be used by advertisers.  But is this really such a scandal after all?

The fact is that Facebook is one of the biggest proponents and users of targeted advertising which necessarily requires the use of personal information in order to send appropriate advertising to a user.  This is what you sign up for when you agree to the platforms terms and conditions and this is how Facebook makes its money.  The platform has a massive amount of information about each and every user that can be used effectively by advertisers to sell their goods and a great deal of research is done about users in the process.

Facebook is not compulsory and if you do not feel comfortable having your personal information used in this way you can stop using it. The public needs to know that the “price” of connecting by social media is the use of your information to sell goods, even your emotional state will be exploited.