TD experienced power of Facebook while making Mayo holiday plans
GREEN Party TD Eamon Ryan has referenced his Mayo holiday plans while making a strong point on the power of Facebook.
Speaking during today's debate of the Joint Oireachtas Committee on Communications, Climate Action and Environment on 'moderation of violent and harmful content on the Facebook', Deputy Ryan said Facebook is 'a hugely powerful and useful platform'.
He elaborated: “The other day I was on Airbnb looking for a house in County Mayo. The next day, on Facebook, Airbnb sent me advertisements for accommodation in the same location.
“Facebook has power of control of data that no one else has. Google, Facebook, Twitter, Airbnb and Linkedin have the power of an oligopoly which we cannot allow go unchecked and unregulated. There is a real question surrounding the business model
“ As the use of data and automation increases, it is a power that will kill every other business model. There are issues for policy makers in how we regulate it.
“As Facebook moves towards home energy management and directing vehicles, my concern is with its possession of data and material. When there is the same crossover, the power of knowledge and information and the ability for that information to be corrupted by external forces become a real concern.”
In response, Ms. Niamh Sweeney, head of public policy at Facebook Ireland, said it is a highly regulated space and, in time, people will become more used to how the technology works.
She continued: “To illustrate the point, when Deputy Eamon Ryan researched a house on the Airbnb website, I presume he did not book it, or maybe he did.
“One of the failings of the system is that advertisers sometimes do not realise someone has already bought a dress, for example, and the person will continue to receive advertisements for dresses.
“The deputy went on Facebook the next day and was served an advertisement for Airbnb. In that case, Airbnb does not know who the deputy is.
“It knows that somebody who was logged in to a Facebook account went to its website and looked at houses in Mayo. This information allows it to tell Facebook it would like to serve an ad for houses in Mayo to the member of our service.
“However, it does not know who that member is. One of the things people find most worrying about this is that they think they are being watched. The way it works is that Airbnb will have embedded a piece of code on its website which pings a unique Facebook identifier back to us without it ever knowing who the Facebook user is.
“Users can operate in anonymity on the web without the websites they are visiting knowing who they are. This service allows the advertiser to reach Facebook users but there is a kind of Chinese wall in place that keeps the user's identity hidden.”