TORONTO — It knows when you shopped online, when you last worked out, and if you glance at your ex’s profile: Meta’s new social network, Threads, devours vast amounts of sensitive data from its 100 million users.

The specificity and volume of information the new platform can access poses a risk for most users if it falls into the wrong hands, digital experts agree.

“It’s every hacker’s dream,” says Claudette McGowan, a veteran banking executive who founded Protexxa, a Toronto-based platform that uses artificial intelligence to quickly identify and resolve cybersecurity issues for enterprise employees.

“The more data that is collected in one place, the more enthusiastically some malicious individuals will access it and use their imaginations to decide what to do with it.”

Threads is subject to Meta’s broader privacy policy, which also applies to its other platforms, Facebook and Instagram.

This policy describes how Meta manages everything from the information provided during account creation to what a user clicks on. Its apps also have access to users’ friend links, as well as the type of phone, computer, or tablet a person uses to access their products.

Threads also has its own supplemental privacy policy, which states, “We collect information about your activity on Threads, including the content you create, the types of content you view or interact with, and your interactions with metadata.” to your content.”

Threads’ privacy policy embedded in Apple’s App Store also states that the social network may collect and link to your identity data about your health and fitness, financial information, browsing history, location and contact information, and the broad category of “sensitive” information. .

The new standard

This approach is not uncommon for social networking or other applications. According to Brett Caraway, professor of media economics at the University of Toronto, it has even become “standard” for these companies to give themselves access to as much data as possible.

For example, TikTok collects usernames, passwords, dates of birth, email addresses, phone numbers, photos, and videos of its users.

Screen resolution, keystrokes, battery level, audio settings, and “Your approximate location” are also tracked by TikTok.

Students at Caraway often wonder why they should care about social media companies accessing their data if they don’t use those apps for malicious activities.

“Just because you’re safe today doesn’t mean you’ll be safe tomorrow,” he tells them.

“In the United States, we are already seeing some marginalized communities being attacked with data, at least rhetorically and sometimes legally. Anyone can find themselves in one of these marginalized communities.”

When asked about the app’s privacy concerns, Meta The Canadian Press referred to Threads posts from its privacy officer, Rob Sherman, who argued that the privacy practices are “similar to the rest of our social apps, including Instagram, in that our apps receive what information they receive.” always share in the app”.

think again

Before signing up for Threads or any other service, McGowan recommends users go beyond a quick look at the privacy policy, which they almost accept with their eyes closed. She urges them to read it more carefully, taking into account how their data could be used.

“People just don’t understand the value of data,” she points out.

“Users become products. Things they can’t even imagine are being monetized.”

She also advises looking into the history of a company.

“Does she have a habit of being careful with sensitive information? Does it show transparency, openness and honesty towards its users?”

In the case of Threads, parent company Meta fell into a sad trap in 2018 when it was revealed that consulting firm Cambridge Analytica had paid a Facebook app developer to access around 87 million users’ personal data.

The personal information was later used to target American voters in the country’s presidential election that brought Donald Trump to power.

With this in mind, users should be aware that most Services offer tools to customize their settings to limit access to certain personal information.

“And you always have the option to delete your account,” Ms McGowan added.

However, in order to delete a Threads account, you have to make one more sacrifice: you have to delete your Instagram account.