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Friedel 1
Friedel Mischler
Professor Bates
ENGL-1213
02 September 2024
Is it ethical for social media companies to collect and use personal data for targeted advertising?
Introduction
Hook
Nowadays, social media companies have embraced the aspects of data collection and big
data. Consider a situation where you are exposed to adverts that are designed based on the
information you provide across social media. This is currently the situation that people are
exposed to given that every person is likely to be exposed to different sets of adverts based on
the information collected.
Purpose
The rise of social media and the increased digital technology has created a need to
collect, store, and use personal data. Social media companies benefit from the information shared
across social media for marketing purposes. As a result, personal data is vital for the success of
social media companies and therefore there is a need to evaluate the process of collecting and
using personal data and the implications this has on ethics and individual privacy. This can help
in understanding the conduct of social media companies and ensuring that personal data has been
used in a responsible manner.
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Create interests
The operations of the social media companies and the marketing initiatives is based on
the process of gathering personal information which influences the targeted advertising
decisions. The manner in which the information is collected and used raises issues such as ethics,
privacy, and transparency in the use of personal information. This includes accessibility of
personal information.
Claim statement
In the absence of personal consent, gathering and using personal data by social media
companies in targeted advertising lacks transparency and violates personal privacy.
I. Narration
a) Topic sentence: The existence and the operations of social media are based on the
company’s ability to collect and use personal information
b) Sentence setting context: The process of collecting and using personal information
impacts millions of people with access to social media platforms where their information
is collected and used by companies without consent or knowledge
c) Sentence setting context: Social media companies such as TikTok, Instagram, X
(Twitter), and Facebook are established on their ability to market products and services to
people across the globe while using the user’s data
d) Sentence setting context: why it is happening: social media companies such as TikTok,
Instagram, X (Twitter) and Facebook use personal data collected to increase their revenue
streams through advertising and promoting consumer engagement. This is the process
leads to target advertising
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e) More if necessary such as history- The rise of Facebook and Twitter (X) in the late 2000s
started a culture of use of personal information in targeted advertising and this has
changed as the concept of big data has developed
II. Confirmation
a. Conformation paragraph
i. Topic sentence: It is unethical for social media companies to gather and use
personal data without the social media users’ consent
ii. Supporting information: Millions of social media users are misinformed and
lack adequate information on the extent to which the information they provide
across social media companies can be used by social media companies. The
complex processes make it hard for the social media users to understand the
policies
iii. Supporting information and quote: “The emerging trend of targeted personal
advertising has led to an increase in privacy concerns from consumers”
(Dwivedi, et al., 2021).
iv. Quote support: the continued use of targeted advertising has created issues
such as privacy issues due to the manner in which the data is used across
social media
v. Conclusion sentence: therefore, the absence of informed consent in the social
media data and use of information creates ethical issues in the use of
information
b. Conformation II
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i. Topic sentence: Ethical issues arise from the inability of social media
companies to provide transparency in the collection and use of information
ii. Supporting information- In the past, there have been cases where social media
companies such as Facebook have collected and shared data with other
companies without the user’s consent
iii. Supporting with a quote- “The discovery that Facebook gave unfettered and
unauthorized access to personally identifiable information (PII) of more than
87 million unsuspecting Facebook users to the data firm Cambridge
Analytica1 has fueled growing interest in the debate over technology’s societal
impact and risks to citizens’ privacy and well-being” (Isaak, & Hanna, 2018).
iv. Explaining the quote: The sharing of the data by Facebook with a third party
further shows a lack of transparency on how the information collected and
shared by the social media companies
v. Conclusion: Therefore, lack of transparency in the collection, use, and sharing
of social, media impacts the manner in which social media companies use
social media
c. Conformation III
i. Topic sentence: targeting advertising and the use of personal data leads to the
exploitation of social media users
ii. Supporting information: social media users are exposed to adverts and this
shows that social media companies have focused more on expanding the
revenue streams while informing the need to safeguard the user’s data
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iii. Quote: According to Appel, Grewal, Hadi, and Stephen (2020) “From a
marketing perspective, the “omni-social” nature of the present environment
suggests that virtually every part of a consumer’s decision-making process is
prone to social media influence.”
iv. The quote shows that the use of targeted advertising has the ability to
influence the user’s decision-making process and this shows the extent to
which social media companies are able to use personal data in order to appeal
to the users
v. Conclusion- social media companies such as Facebook and TikTok operate
under revenue motives and therefore focus and the data and algorithms in
order to further achieve targeted advertising
III. Refutation
a) Topic sentence: the use of targeted advertising has a positive impact on the user’s
lives as it provides them with an opportunity to access products and ads that may
have a positive impact on their lives
b) Further explanation: the use of social media is important as it helps the users to
increase their level of engagement and this is important as it impacts their
decision-making process. According to Alalwan, (2018), “This is also due to the
nature of social media ads as they empower customers to have more engagement
(i.e. liking, re-sharing, commenting, posting, and learning) with the targeted ads”.
c) Concede a point: even though the use of social media and targeted advertising
helps in increasing user engagement and the decision-making process, the social
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media companies’ inability to seek consent and transparency fails to support their
conduct in the process
d) Sentence rebutting: despite the positives of targeted advertising, the benefits that
arise from this process do not outweigh the issues such as lack of transparency,
informed consent, and privacy issues that arise from the manner in which the data
is used
e) Sentence providing evidence to support the rebuttal: According to Appel, Grewal,
Hadi, and Stephen (2020) “In line with rising privacy concerns, the way
consumers view brands and social media is becoming increasingly negative.
Consumers are deleting their social media presence, where research has shown
that nearly 40% of digitally connected individuals admitted to deleting at least one
social media account due to fears of their personal data being mishandled”. This
shows that consumers are increasingly becoming aware of the dangers of social
media and this shows that they are becoming more concerned about how their
data are being used by these platforms
f) Therefore despite the positive impact of targeted advertising, the issue of data
privacy and transparency has remained a concern for social media users
IV. Conclusion
a) Summary of strongest reason and evidence: targeted advertising embraced by
social media platforms emanates from the conduct of the social media companies
which includes the violation of the user’s privacy and lack of transparency in the
manner in which the social media data is used
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b) Remind readers: It is important to ensure that privacy, transparency, and other
concerns are addressed which may require changes in policies to ensure that the
personal data has been protected from being misused by the social media
companies.
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Work Cited
Alalwan, A. A. (2018). Investigating the impact of social media advertising features on customer
purchase intention. International journal of information management, 42, 65-77.
Appel, G., Grewal, L., Hadi, R., & Stephen, A. T. (2020). The future of social media in
marketing. Journal of the Academy of Marketing science, 48(1), 79-95.
Dwivedi, Y. K., Ismagilova, E., Hughes, D. L., Carlson, J., Filieri, R., Jacobson, J., … & Wang,
Y. (2021). Setting the future of digital and social media marketing research: Perspectives
and research propositions. International journal of information management, 59, 102168.
Isaak, J., & Hanna, M. J. (2018). User data privacy: Facebook, Cambridge Analytica, and
privacy protection. Computer, 51(8), 56-59.
