Sorry tik tok, but my private data is just for me, US based social media companies, and whoever it is they decide to share it with.

Tik tok had the audacity, the sheer gall, to steal our personal, private, oh-so special data. Now all of China knows of our rythymless moves. They’re probably mocking us right now.

Don’t they know that that information is reserved solely for ourselves, social media companies based in the US, and whoever it is they choose to share said information with?

In 2018 there was a bombshell report that Facebook users’ data was harvested by Cambridge Analytica. They then sold that information to other entities. Of course, if my data is going to be passed around in order to influence and/or bully me, I would prefer that money exchange hands, even if it does not reach me. It would be comforting to know that my info is worth something!

Also in 2018 it was unilaterally decided by the general public’s waning interest, subsequent silence, and continued heavy Facebook use that they did not care one bit. Allegedly, they used that information to feed into the common man’s fear to get people to vote a certain way. But is that even possible?

Because mind control is not real. This isn’t the X-Men, there are no superpowers. Everything we know is the product of our own independent studies. Of course, Bill Gates is putting tracker chips into vaccines cos I saw a video from a stranger with 9 friends that said so! Of course, Hillary Clinton is running a cult under a pizza shop cos this meme said so! This is an independent study, okay.

For months, this one story dominated the news cycle. There were hearings where they brought forward Facebook’s android ruler. He then proceeded to malfunction in front of non-synthetic, elderly interrogators. All of this culminated in an apology and a promise.

But this was for Facebook. We haven’t gone through the hoopla yet for Tik Tok. If anything, every time a social media company is accused of something similar we need to go through the same public outcry followed by indifference.

But should we skip that part and fast forward straight to accepting that nothing we do is for ourselves? That we are all playthings of the powers that be, and our personality and belief systems are shaped by targeted posts from an entity behind the scenes? That it does not matter whether it is the Chinese government on a quest to rule the world or a handful of American companies trying to amass a fortune at our expense?

Consider this as well, I don’t use Tik Tok. Maybe I’m just afraid of the world changing and leaving my generation behind so I just decry whatever is new as ‘nonsense’. I don’t know but I hate it and feel more or less justified in doing so. After all, it’s stealing people’s data!

Though, Facebook too is quite shit.