Does Meta really care about user privacy? With all its platforms eavesdropping on our conversations, we’d say not so much. In 2019, Facebook even admitted to listening in and monitoring private conversations with the help of transcribing services that were available to the users on Messenger. 

Moreover, if we take the case of Meta and Cambridge Analytica, Meta has been guilty of manipulating elections by stealing user’s personal data and selling it to political consultants, which ultimately sold it for political advertising. It is very hard to trust Meta with any information now. 

With the recent release of its new app called Threads, an alternative to Twitter, Meta has taken these concerns to another level. Instead of just messages or audios, the company is tapping into our thoughts! Twitter, essentially, is about posting your thoughts and following like-minded people. This in turn gives away a lot about the personality, beliefs and their opinions on an array of things, like products, people and politics, etc. Now, the same is the case with Threads. But with Meta and its past record, it is even more difficult to trust the company than Twitter.

Data is all you need

The implications of this invasive technology are far-reaching. While some users may appreciate the personalised experience and convenience offered by Meta Threads, others are deeply troubled by the idea that a company can delve into the inner workings of their minds. Concerns about privacy and the potential for manipulation is abound, as Meta gains unprecedented insight into individuals’ thoughts, emotions, and even political leanings.

As Meta refines its technology and expands its reach, the potential applications become even more intriguing. The data gathered from Meta Threads could serve as a goldmine for developing advanced chatbots based on Language Models (LLMs) like the second version of LLaMa. According to Zuckerberg in a Lex Fridman podcast, the company is already planning to leverage data from all its services in the next iteration of its technology.

This puts into perspective the plan to milk data for Meta through Threads. As soon as a user jumps onto the platform, Meta will be smartly ‘reading’ your thoughts. If we consider the metaverse, after listening to conversations and reading our thoughts, the next big thing that Meta could do with the metaverse is track what we see. In the end, the same data would be used for advertisers to curate “personalised” ads for every user, if not political manipulation.

This is one of the many reasons Twitter has always been considered as a data gold mine. One might think that Twitter is just a text-based social media platform, but one forgets that it hosts the discourses between people about every topic in the world. This is what Meta picked up from Twitter and built Threads – now telling brands what you think! 

Furthermore, Meta’s new Generative AI Sandbox tool is also curated for giving advertisers the ability to track user behaviour on its platforms to personalise ads and target specific audiences. 

Threads is just another advertising platform

It is clear that ads have been one of the biggest sources of revenue for Meta. Surprisingly nothing changes with Threads. The privacy policy of the newly launched app has been a concern for people all this while.

Even though Threads does not host ads as of now, Zuckerberg’s approach towards developing the app seems to be hinting towards just giving advertisers the ability to showcase customised ads harnessing Meta’s improved algorithms. Threads has been touted as one of the best pages for companies to post their content by Zuckerberg himself, this would just drive more advertisers on the platform.

Meta has been one of the biggest proponents of self-supervised learning, where using minimal data, it is able to teach machines human behaviour. This, in turn, has helped the company develop sophisticated algorithms capable of analysing users’ thoughts and predicting their preferences with astonishing accuracy. Thus, Meta would keep the data for itself to build its own generative AI tools, while giving the services for advertisers. 

This newfound ability raises serious concerns about user privacy and the potential invasion of their innermost thoughts. Users unwittingly provide Meta with a direct window into their minds. Every post, like, and comment on the app is carefully scrutinised and analysed by Meta’s advanced machine learning systems.

So even though Meta is not directly reading our minds, Threads is giving it a window into our minds. Meta has to prove its dedication towards users’ privacy now more than ever if it wants users to continue using Threads and not harvest their data.