associationFOCUS | Volume 8, Issue 2

he emergence of social media, dating back to the early 2000s, is revolutionary on so many levels. It is constantly evolving in its practical usage, as seen during the corona- virus pandemic of 2020, and in the many niche branches that have emerged for both entertainment and business usage, such as Snap - chat and Instagram. A hotly debated niche branch that has recently captivated many individuals’ free time and caught nationwide negative press is TikTok—a Chinese- founded video app that allows users to perform viral dances to clips of music. While, much like Snapchat and the late Vine, businesses saw new marketing and branding opportunities in the popu - larity of the app, the United States government saw a huge red flag. Being that it was founded by a Chinese firm, government officials, fear that the app is collating data from its users and have actually put into motion an order to shut it down nationwide. This event yet again raised a topic I have discussed since the mid-1980s: In this digital world, who actually owns our data? WHO IS LISTENING? Those who avoid social media for personal or professional reasons often believe they are immune to this virtual data confiscation; however, if you have a smart device in your life, your data is just as accessible as an individual dancing for their TikTok audience. Take, for example, several news reports about how the Google app on your smartphone can listen to your television set while it is on, allowing Google advertisers to identify what you are watching to leverage it for targeted advertising, based on your real-time viewing habits. Outside of social media and digital entertainment, many cars on the road today have a type of “black box” in them with the capabilities of reporting your driving habits to insurance agencies, which are moving to a sliding scale of auto insurance premiums based on your real-time risk on the road. But, much like our other examples, who owns that data? The insurance company? The auto manufacturer? The driver? As you can see, there’s a lot of data being collected, and it’s not just by the NSA. It’s by an Who Owns It? By Daniel Burrus The Data You Share on Social Platforms T 18 | association FOCUS