Facebook, Gmail spy on you

THIRUVANANTHAPURAM: Facebook and Gmail keep a spying eye on you every time you log on, so that maximum personal data related to the user can be extracted. "Despite the dissent and protest by several million users of FB and Gmail, they are continuing with the information-extraction as this info can be used for attracting advertisers,’’ said Sreenath Sreenivasan, Digital Media Professor and Student Dean, Columbia Journalism School.Sreenivasan said while Gmail extracts information about the user from the messages he composes, FB obtains information even from the status message you pose. "For example, if you send a Gmail message to your wife saying that please buy milk, your wife can see the ads of various milk brands when she opens the mail,’’ he said.The FB uses a more intelligent programme where the likes and dislikes of a user are judged from the comments he makes in the e-debates or from the status message. Addressing a session with mediapersons on the future of social media, Sreenivasan said the myth that Facebook or iPad can solve everything is baseless. ‘’True, online campaigns had played a role in the democratic movements in the Arab world. But, Arab spring is not a social media revolution only, it is a true revolution which is in conjunction with everything that happened in the offline world,’’ he said. According to Sreenivasan, the growth of print and visual media in India is amazing when compared to the scenario in the US. ‘’I subscribe to two newspapers in New York. But, it is a luxury. Only very few do that. But, here, many of you might be reading four to six newspapers a day,’’ he said.Commenting that the future of the media will definitely be the web, he said though newspapers and readers have gone online, advertisers haven’t gone online yet. They still find print an easier and effective medium to advertise. "There is something called banner-blindness which makes users don’t care about banner ads at all which is pulling advertisers back,’’ he said. But, there still is a space for newspapers and context, background and analysis of a news break are provided in detail in newspapers only.