How Decentralized Social Media Are Addressing Privacy Concerns

While traditional social media have helped us connect and allowed creators to make money on social media, they have their fair share of challenges. One of these concerns is data privacy. According to a recent study, 81% of Americans are concerned about data privacy on social media networks. Scammers can steal your identity whenever you share your information on social media, such as posts, profiles, and behavioral data.

Data protection and privacy issues mean you could share personal data without your knowledge. Therefore, whenever you use social media, you put yourself at risk. In this article, we will share why centralized social media platforms may be putting your data at risk and how decentralized social media platforms are helping to solve this problem.

Why is Social Media Data Privacy Important?

Social media privacy refers to the personal information visible on your account. This information is usually shared knowingly and unknowingly. For instance, social media companies may share your data with marketing companies. While this is a concern amongst social media users, there is a more significant risk: the risk of fraudsters and scammers.

According to the Federal Trade Commission (FTC), 25% of all frauds occurred on social media, leading to losses of over $770 million. Unlike what many users think, scammers can still access your data even after you have set your account to private. To make matters worse, some sites, such as Facebook, collect data even when you don't have an account. Then, they will use the data to target you with ads on their connected sites.

Common Social Media Data Privacy Concerns

Some of the issues that users of centralized social media platforms are concerned about are:

Hacking

In centralized social media platforms, many users often post information that provides hackers with some clues about their security questions or passwords. For instance, when they post about their elementary school or hometown, hackers can use the information to answer their security questions.

Phishing Scams

If you haven't set your social media account to private, you can get a message from a scammer trying to convince you to click on a malicious link. Statistics indicate that 12% of clicks to phishing websites were from social media.

Data Access By Predators and Stalkers

One of the information often shared on social media sites is location. Many social media users may include their location on posts and photos. However, this data can be used by scammers, stalkers, and thieves to track their movements.

Identity Theft From Data Mining

You might be surprised that scammers don't need much information to steal your identity. In most cases, the information they need is shared on social media. This can include your name, address, location, and phone number. Scammers can use your email address and phone number to discover your leaked information on the dark web, such as credit card numbers, social security numbers, or passwords.

Sensitive Information From Privacy Loopholes

A lot of changes often occur on social media sites, affecting their features and policies. Many of these changes can result in serious data privacy problems. For instance, when you share a post with friends in private groups, it can be shared publicly. If your friend isn't following the same stringent social media privacy settings, this information can fall into the wrong hands.

How Decentralized Social Media Platforms Are Solving These Problems

We have already seen the challenges associated with centralized social media platforms, such as growing your followers base which has resulted in the development of decentralized social media networks (DSN). These networks are usually built using the decentralization principle common in Web3 and blockchain technology.

Decentralized social media platforms differ from centralized options because they allow data to be stored in a distributed computer network. This means no centralized body controls the data, ensuring data privacy and a new security level that prevents censorship and data breaches.

Decentralized social media platforms are different from the traditional social media networks. They use decentralized storage solutions, smart contracts, and P2P communication protocols to ensure a transparent and immutable ecosystem governed by the user. The user retains ownership of the data, providing user permission on a case-by-case basis and removing the current data exploitation dynamics.

How AI Impacts Decentralized Networks

AI has greatly improved how decentralized social media networks work, helping to provide solutions to some of the challenges affecting the platforms. For instance, in centralized social media platforms, one of the concerns of many users is the opaque way content is moderated. On the other hand, decentralized social media platforms can guide AI to follow certain community guidelines, ensuring fairness and transparency in how content is curated.

Additionally, AI algorithms improve user experience while maintaining data privacy. By using advanced machine learning models, encrypted data, or federated learning approaches, AI can ensure that users only see the kind of content they want to see while retaining the data on devices rather than sharing it with the platform operator.

Future Implication of Decentralized Data Networks

Decentralized social media networks have created a new digital communication era prioritizing privacy, security, and agency. As these platforms mature, we expect to see a change in the internet's power dynamics, moving from centralization to user-driven decentralization.

While this transition may take time and be filled with challenges, it also provides an opportunity to ensure a private, more secure, and equitable potential. That means DNS could help improve how information is disseminated and consumed. This can help to minimize the spread of misinformation and improve public discourse. When combined with AI integration, it can empower users and provide them with a more enriching experience.

Conclusion

With many social media users concerned about privacy issues, decentralized social media users provide a paradigm shift, empowering businesses to have control, security, and engagement. They also offer creators an opportunity to make money on social media. Therefore, decentralization comes with lots of benefits, such as data integrity, customizable experience, and enhanced privacy, which will help to improve the evolving digital landscape that demands fairness and autonomy.

As social media users embrace decentralized social networks, they will open new avenues. Users will be able to connect, express, and collaborate in the digital space. All in all, the future of social networking will be in decentralization and the empowerment of individuals. We recommend you read our guide on factors affecting the reach of your Facebook posts.