Several websites and apps have recently gone viral through facebook posts. These apps allow you to connect your Facebook account and see pictures of yourself be changed in some way. Maybe to look like a movie star or a politician or a model. Sure, we all want to see ourselves as celebrities or as the latest magazine cover model but there is a price to pay. If these things seem too free or cheap to be a good idea, it’s because that’s exactly what’s going on. They don’t have to charge for access to those little images or services because they make their money by selling your data.
MoviePass made waves several months ago with their inexpensive movie theater subscription service. Their app was super successful because ten bucks per month is a super low price for up to one movie per day in the theater. I remember seeing this offer shared online numerous times over the past several months. People were amazed that it actually worked and in a world where there are mega blockbuster movies being released every month, an all-access pass is a value that seems too good to be legit. The truth is, it isn’t as legit as you may think.
At a recent event, Mitch Lowe, the CEO of Movie Pass gave a talk called “Data is the New Oil: How MoviePass will Monetize It.” In it he bragged about the amount of data the app received from its users:
“We get an enormous amount of information. We watch how you drive from home to the movies. We watch where you go afterwards.” he even said, “We know all about you.”
Data mining isn’t new, in fact, it has been happening almost since the dawn of the internet. The difference is how little information the companies are required to give users about the amount of data they’re tracking and what they do with it. Terms of Service and Privacy policies are rarely read by users and even if they were, they give the most bare-bones information about the practices of the company. MoviePass claims to ping your location data once when you search for movies in your local theater. It seems they do a bit more than that.
We are all a bit used to our data being tracked by the sites we use. We’ve seen ads from Amazon show up on our Facebook feeds every single day for years now. Unfortunately, however, not all of the data that companies like Viralemon and MoviePass receive is about what we’re shopping for. This data can be sold to other advertisers and be used to add promotional options to their apps or websites. The biggest concern is the often less than effective security protocols these companies have. If their site is compromised for some reason, all of that data can get into the hands of hackers with less than wholesome intentions.
My Advice
First of all, don’t give random sites access to your social media pages. If a site, game, or activity redirects you to a link that asks you to click ALLOW in Facebook then click away immediately. If you want to upload a picture, that’s up to you but letting a sill site like that access your Friends list, timeline photos, profile photos, videos, page clicks, likes, and who knows what all else is just a bad idea. Always.
Don’t upload pictures of your kids to these sites. Photos of kids are prime real estate. It sounds sick but you wouldn’t believe the use for random pictures of your son or daughter in the marketing, advertising, and much worse industries.
If it sounds too cheap to be legit…IT IS NOT LEGIT! This one speaks for itself, if they aren’t making money by charging you to use their service or buy their product then they’re making money some other way. In the internet/connected age, they’re almost always making money by selling your information.
Share and don’t Share! Cool, you are now well aware of the risks of giving these sites access to your social media accounts. Now you need to share this knowledge with your friends. Remember that if they give away their info, much of that info could include you. Let them know it isn’t safe and then stop sharing these dumb, clickbait, data mining apps and websites so that they’ll stop going viral, stop making money, and have to shut down. That would make the internet a much safer place.