There’s an “old” adage “if it’s free, you’re the product.” While social media platforms like Facebook, Instagram, and TikTok offer a great way to global connection at “no monetary cost”, the “free” price tag is an illusion that most social media users do not understand. In reality, the user (you) are the product, your attention/time and data which are harvested by the social media network for their “main/actual” customer are the advertisers.
Posting “legal notice”, in the hopes of making it viral circulates on social media feeds, with users/influencers posting statements like: “I HEREBY DECLARE THAT I DO NOT GIVE MY PERMISSION FOR META TO USE MY DATA.” While these posts provide a “false” sense of agency, they are legally meaningless. A status update cannot unilaterally rewrite a signed contract. Because you agreed to facebook’s Terms, Privacy Policy and Cookies Policy. the moment you create your account, you already gave the platform your consent. These platforms operate on a “take it or leave it” basis; the only way to stop or legally “revoke” permission is to delete your account.
Here’s what Facebook says when you delete your account;
Deleting your account is permanent. When you delete your account, your main profile and everything else you’ve added will be permanently deleted. You won’t be able to retrieve anything you’ve added. All additional profiles, Messenger and all of your messages will also be deleted.
But even if you delete your account, there is no guarantee that all your data will be deleted from the system.
We have to remember that Facebook and other social media platforms pay engineers and designers tons of money, to keep you “the product” engaged for as long as possible and as often as possible. Which is why we have this thing called “Attention Economy”, where algorithms are built to trigger dopamine responses, leading to habits like “doomscrolling.” For the modern digital Filipino, it’s important to know that social media isn’t a free public service. It is a private marketplace where your time, privacy, and data are the real money being spent.