Protecting our digital existence
Making it a bit harder for digital platforms to monetise our data
Introduction
In this new digital era, the data encompassing your digital existence is of the utmost value for all the digital platforms out there, and this data is available in various formats:
- Text messages (which includes OTPs for signing in to various services, credit/debit transactional messages, personal messages, etc)
- Images & Videos (which includes the ones that are available locally in devices, social media posts & stories, etc)
- Keyboard data (which includes every word, phrase and sentence that is typed via an android/iOS device)
- Audio data (which includes the records of all the peer-to-peer voice conversations and conversations with voice assistants)
- Location data (which includes real-time location stream, saved addresses, etc)
- User behaviour data (which includes what reels/shorts/posts/stories one likes/comments/posts, activity on search engines, affinity towards products/restaurants/movies and countless others)
Although the above list is not exhaustive in nature, but it does cover the most relevant data formats. Needless to mention, each of these data formats and the attributes that can be derived from these can be monetised, which can and does result in gigantic profits for companies like Google, Meta, LinkedIn, Twitter, etc. But you must be wondering …
“So, what dude? I am using these services for free. In return, if these services need my data, then so be it! Also, thanks to this data only, the services that I am using are getting improved, so, what’s the harm in this?”
Undoubtedly, if the companies are using this data to improve their services, I am all for it. Even when this data is used for achieving new technical advancements (like ChatGPT, DallE, etc), I am fine with that, as long as the data is used in a responsible manner (no leakage of data, all the PIIs are eliminated, etc). But when these companies monetise the data, it gets a little concerning. Now, you might be wondering “Why?”. For answering that, let’s take a look at how 2 of the largest digital advertising platforms in the world monetises our data.
How does Google Ads monetises customers’ data?
Consider a hypothetical scenario. Let’s say you search for Nothing Phone X (which is just launched in the market) via google search engine, just because you were curious to know more about it. Now, this single search has indicated google that you could be a possible lead to buy Nothing Phone X. So, if tomorrow Nothing starts using google ads to advertise for Nothing Phone X, google will start showing you ads for the same when you search for any other phone, when you visit websites that are partnered with google display network (GDN), when you open your gmail promotions tab, when you open your google discover feed, when you scroll through youtube shorts, and when you stream any youtube videos.
Even though you are not in need for a new device, Google might show you the ad for Nothing Phone X again and again, and this might lead to what is commonly known as “Impulsive Buying”. To know about this phenomenon, feel free to give a read to the following …
In simple words, you might end up purchasing Nothing Phone X, despite the fact that you are not in need for a new device, just because google ensured to signal your mind again and again. Similar to this, every product or service that is advertised for via google ads may trick one into buying it despite the absence of its need. The smaller the ticket-size of the product or service, the more likelihood for one to indulge in “Impulsive Buying”.
How does Meta Ads monetises customers’ data?
Consider another hypothetical scenario. Let’s say you are a new user to Instagram, and you started scrolling reels for the first time. Meta showed you a reel of an influential travel blogger, you watched it and liked it. Now, in the next 30 days, say you used Instagram for 30 mins every day, in which you scrolled through 15 reels and saw 15 posts every day. Out of the 900 reels and posts, let’s assume Meta showed you 150 travel-related reels and posts, out of which you liked 100 of them. Therefore, Meta has established that one of your key interests is travel.
Now, let’s say that tomorrow Make My Trip and Ease My Trip start using Meta ads to advertise for their premium subscriptions (which comes with year-around discounts, additional loyalty points, etc). Since Meta has already established that you have travel as one of your key interests, it might show you the ad when you open your instagram or facebook feed, when scrolling through reels and when going through the stories. Considering the fact that meta will show you the ad for say 6–7 times in the next 30 days, how likely is that you might end up buying the subscription, despite the fact that your work schedule only allows you to go on 2 trips in a year (for which the subscription cost borne by you isn’t justified)?
To put things in perspective, in 2023, Meta generated over $131 billion in ad revenues.
And to put this number in perspective, it is more than enough for Meta to not create any additional sources of revenue in it’s past 20 years of operation, and still acquire social media giants like Instagram & WhatsApp. In other words, to this date, digital advertising still is the primary source of revenue for Meta.
How to curb data monetisation?
Although I have mentioned only “Impulsive Buying” as the output of data monetisation previously, that’s not all. There are countless ways in which data monetisation could have a significant direct impact on your lives. For instance, using your data, political candidates can modify their speeches and political campaigns to appeal to the maximum people in a political constituency, and thus, secure his/her position in the assembly.
Now, I am assuming that at this point, the reader, i.e., you must be belonging to either of the 2 factions: either you believe that data monetisation helps me to discover relevant products and services, or either you believe that data monetisation is indeed concerning. If you belong to the first faction, the remaining part of the blog would be irrelevant to you. And if you belong to the second faction, you must be wondering …
“So, who has the responsibility of ensuring that my data is not monetised, and even if it is, it doesn’t impact me?”
The answer to this is Government + Companies + Users. So, let’s see one-by-one the roles of the different entities.
Role of Government
The government needs to lay out and enforce a framework, under which the companies are mandated to take explicit consent from their end users’ as to whether their data can be monetised or not. And in case of any violations, strict penalties must be imposed on the companies. In fact, this is what the Indian government plans to bring forth with the help of the Digital Personal Data Protection Act, 2023 (DPDP).
Here you can find the official document released by the Indian government, containing all the necessary details about the DPDP bill. In case you need a more appealing and a less daunting version of the same, feel free to go through this brief document curated by PwC.
Role of Companies
The companies just need to ensure that they follow the rules laid within the framework proposed by the governments.
Role of Users
Assuming that the governments and the companies do their part, the users or consumers of these products/services still have the most important role to play. The users must ensure that they periodically go through their “Data & Privacy settings”, and restrict their data usage if the usage of product or service is not affected by the same. In case it is, the user can still take a call, as to which parts of his/her data are used, and which are not.
Steps that you can take
Although the DPDP bill has been passed, we still don’t have a tentative timeline as to by when will it be enforced by the Indian government. So, in the meanwhile, are there any steps that you can take to restrict your data usage to any extent? Fortunately, some of the big players in the market have been considerate enough to allow their end users to restrict their data usage, with negligible impact in the product or the service. So, let’s go through some of these major products/services one-by-one, and see how one can restrict his/her data usage.
Telecom Operators (Jio, Airtel, VI, etc)
Text Messages (or SMS) is still one of the most popular methods via which promotional messages are sent to the users, and if a promotional message is being sent to you, then that means that some entity out there has monetised your data and identified you as a relevant target. To stop receiving any promotional messages via SMS, you can activate DND (Do Not Disturb) for your number via your telecom operator. This might push the entities to put you in their respective DND lists, since they won’t be able to reach out to you via SMS.
Although, it is not 100% effective, i.e., you will still get some promotional messages, but the bulk will be blocked.
Uber
Uber has been pretty straight-forward in how it uses its consumers’ data, so, I will quote an excerpt from Uber itself …
Uber displays ads on its apps and websites, and those of third parties, that are personalized based on users’ interests and characteristics. This includes ads for Uber, merchants or restaurants who are available on Uber, and third party products and services. We personalize these ads so that they are more relevant and interesting to you.
Restricting data usage on Uber is also pretty simple: 1) Go to “Settings” on your Uber App, 2) Click on “Privacy”, 3) Under the section, “Ads and data”, you will find items like “Offers and Promos from Uber”, “Data tracking”, etc, 4) Click each of these items, and turn off the data sharing.
Netflix
Netflix also has been pretty straight-forward in how it uses its consumers’ data, and how to restrict the same.
The steps to restrict data usage on Netflix are as follows: 1) Go to “Account” on Netflix website, 2) In the “Overview” tab, click on “Edit Settings”, 3) This will open the profile settings, and you need to do this for all your Netflix profiles, 4) In the profile settings, click on “Privacy and data settings”, 5) Turn off “Allow matched identifier communications”
Google also provides a pretty straight-forward mechanism to restrict your data monetisation. The steps are as follows: 1) Go to your Google Account, 2) Click on “Data and privacy tab”, 3) In this, you will find a section of “Personalised ads”, 4) Click on “My Ad Centre”, 5) Turn off the personalised ads
Meta
Meta has one of the most complex mechanisms in place for those who want to restrict their data usage, therefore, I have kept this for last. And it makes sense as well, why would Meta want to eliminate its major source of revenue. Nonetheless, the steps are as follows:
- Go to “Settings & privacy”, and then go to “Settings”.
- In the “Accounts Centre”, click on “Ad preferences”. This will take you to another page, click on “Ad preferences” again.
- Click on “Advertisers that you’ve seen”. Using this tab, you can disable the ads from the most recent advertisers that have shown ads to you. This will keep on getting populated, so you can review this setting periodically.
- Once done, go to “Ad preferences” again, and click on “Ad topics”. In this tab, click on “View and manage topics”. You will see all the different ad topics here. Click on each of these topics individually, and select “No preference”. Completing this task is likely to take 20 mins or so.
- Once done, go to “Ad preferences” again, and click on “Ad settings”. Click on “Activity information from ad partners”, and then click on “Review setting”. Finally, click on “No, don’t make my ads more relevant by using this information”.
- Once done, get back to “Ad settings”. Click on “Categories used to reach you”. Here, turn off the usage of all the “Profile information”. Then click on “Other categories”, and remove the usage of all demographic and behavioural categories.
- Once done, get back to “Ad settings”. Click on “Ads shown off Meta”, and then switch the toggle to “Not allowed”.
- Once done, get back to “Ad settings”. Click on “Audience-based advertising”. Here, Meta will push you to perform tons of clicks, to ensure that you are not shown personalised ads.
- In this tab, there will be countless advertisers listed, which have used or are using Meta ads currently to show ads to you. Click on each of these advertisers individually. Click on “They uploaded or used a list to reach you”, and then turn off “Showing ads to you using a list”. Completing this task is likely to take 40 mins or so.
Conclusion 👋
Here, I have listed how to restrict your data monetisation by only some of the most prominent companies out there. It is highly likely that other companies also offer such “Data & Privacy” settings. So, if you use other services/products pretty often, it is worth to spend 10 mins to review the data sharing settings once, and analyse if your data usage can be restricted to any possible extent.
I really hope that you liked this blog, and if you did, do leave some claps 👏, and if you would like to read more blogs, then #StayTuned. Connect with me on LinkedIn, and if you have suggestions on how to improve this blog, just send me a DM; and I will be more than happy to incorporate your suggestions.
