Why it Matters

The misuse of personal data goes far beyond annoying ads—it can manipulate emotions, influence decisions, and even compromise personal security. Political campaigns have used data to target individuals with emotionally charged messaging designed to sway opinions on divisive issues. People showing signs of financial distress may be singled out for predatory crypto or gambling ads. If within the wrong hands, user data can be used to exploit a user’s weaknesses and beliefs for profit.

This is why protecting sensitive data—like social security numbers, financial information, and even behavioral patterns—is crucial. When organizations fail to safeguard this data or carelessly share it with third parties, they open the door to data breaches that can have lasting, real-world consequences for millions of people.

Dark Patterns

Dark patterns are deceptive design techniques used in websites or apps to manipulate users into doing things they might not otherwise do. Cookie opt-ins often use prominent colors and text for the “accept” button and require navigating through menus to reject them. Similar tactics are used to coax users into making purchases, and make it difficult to cancel subscriptions. This tactic has been, and can be used to take advantage of minors’ data.

(Citation): FTC

Privacy Policies

Last year, X quietly updated their Terms of Service to state that all user content could be used to train their machine learning and artificial intelligence models—without offering any form of consent or opt-out mechanism. This reflects a broader trend across social media platforms, where data sharing settings are enabled by default and often buried behind multiple menus, making it difficult for users to locate or change them.

Even when an opt-out is available, it’s typically presented as an all-or-nothing choice, leaving users in the dark about which third parties may have access to their data and how it's being used.

(Citation) X Terms of Service: react.dev