April 2015 47
T
HE cost of using social networks
and email services may usually
come without a financial price but
most of us are aware that the companies
providing these services expect some-
thing else in return: our information.
That these technological superpowers
gather, analyse and, ultimately, mone-
tise this data is no longer a trade secret.
In recent years, with the growth of
these companies and their collective
user base, more details have emerged
as to the extent of their data collection.
In the third quarter of 2014, Facebook
claimed to have 1.35 billion active users
(that is, those who have used Facebook
in the last 30 days) while the number of
active Gmail users comes in at a more
modest 500 million. Respectively, these
figures make up almost 20% and 7% of
the earth’s population. Relative to the
number of people with access to the
internet (2.7 billion), that figure comes
in at 50% and 18.5%.
Recent research commissioned by the
Belgian data protection agency revealed
additional information that indicated
just how far these services reach into
the lives of even the most casual inter-
net users. The extensive report detailed
how Facebook gathered information
on the online activity of non-Facebook
users and even those who explicitly opt-
ed-out of being monitored, with the
latter having ironically had a cookie
placed on their computer which allowed
for their activity to be tracked for up to
two years.
An earlier report commissioned by
the Belgian data commissioner found
that the company’s privacy policy was in
breach of EU privacy law which requires
that prior consent be given before issu-
ing a cookie or ‘tracking’, unless it is
necessary for either the networking
required to connect to the service (“cri-
terion A”) or for delivering a service
specifically requested by the user (“cri-
terion B”).
The same law requires websites to
notify users on their first visit to a site
that it uses cookies, requesting consent
to do so.
Meanwhile, the European Cour t of Jus-
tice is set to decide on an Irish-generated
case about the legality of the ‘Safe Har-
bour’ treaty, which allows the US arm
of big social media sites to transfer data
from the stringently regulated EU to the
US, where it can finish up , as Edward
Snowden showed, in the dodgiest of offi-
cial hands.
The extent to which companies will go
to gather data is reflective of its signifi-
cance to them in terms of profit. More
data equals more growth and so mining
non-Facebook users for theirs, even
given its occasional illegality, seems
to be a step worth taking for Facebook.
Interestingly, Facebook and its CEO,
Mark Zuckerberg, are playing a major
part in expanding the size of the world’s
internet population through their Inter-
net.org initiative.
In the extravagantly titled “white
paper” announcing Internet.org, Zucker-
berg stated his belief that “connectivity
is a human right” and framed the moti-
vation for its creation as humanitarian
rather than profit-seeking in nature. It’s
difficult to imagine that executives at
Facebook wouldn’t have drawn up plans
to see how they could potentially capital-
ise on their company’s penetration into
untapped population-rich markets.
Internet.org isn’t the first multina-
tional-driven tech effort to enable easier
access to internet services or, indeed,
the first by Facebook. Its Zero service
allows users of specific mobile providers
to access Facebook via a stripped-down
version of its flagship product. Text can
be downloaded free of charge but users
must pay to access photos and video. It
has been a highly successful initiative to
the extent that a survey of online users
in Africa found that a higher percent-
age of respondents said that they used
Facebook than said they used the inter-
net itself.
The Internet.org homepage greets
visitors with the tagline: “The more we
connect, the better it gets”, a statement
which rings true from more than one
angle. In an interview with Bloomberg,
Zuckerberg was reticent when the sub-
ject of advertising on Internet.org was
originally brought up, replying that
he “[wasn’t] sure if it’s a big part of the
solution in the short-term”. Of course
Zuckerberg is so aggrandised that it is
not clear for whom the solution is being
sought.
Nevertheless when asked if that meant
no advertising, he replied that “in a lot of
these countries there isn’t a very big ad
market yet, so it’s not that we won’t do
it eventually”. Of course, once you have
solid data on the market you’re selling to
advertisers, those advertisers are likely
to become more interested. The Inter-
net.org initiative could therefore be seen
as the firing gun to start the internet ad
race in emerging markets.
Ultimately, Internet.org will continue
to improve the lives of millions of people
by providing basic internet access but it
does not take a cynic to view the altru-
istic language of Facebook Zero and
Internet.org as being somewhat disin-
genuous. Companies such as Facebook
and Google exist solely on the back of
their users’ data and, while the trade-
off may be acceptable for all concerned
parties, when companies are willing to
go so far as breaking the law, it’s neces-
sary to pay attention. •
Companies like Facebook will do anything for our data. By Jonny Baxter
Shamefacebook
Zuckerberg
stated his
belief that
“connectivity
is a human
right” and
framed the
motivation for
its creation as
humanitarian
“
MEDIA Facebook
do not under any circumstances
trust this man

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