OUR willingness to give away private info online has given tech giants free reign to profile billions of users which will soon have "scary consequences, experts warn.

Obsession with social media is allowing major companies to figure out what we want before we know ourselves.

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Election fraud, online scams, and a plummeting sense of self-worth is all part of the vicious cycle weve signed up to.

Stephen Burke, from Dublin-based Cyber Risk Aware, told the Irish Sun: When we sign up to a social media account, we either want to share what we are doing, or to see what others are doing.

We knowingly make a decision to sacrifice our privacy.

It cant come as a big surprise when companies like Facebook, LinkedIn, Twitter, TikTok, Whats-App or Instagram share this information with others in order to analyse people, their behaviours, thoughts, interests, likes and dislikes and monetize it. People have become the product.

The flip side, however, is we are being profiled and the data is then shared with other third parties whom we know nothing about and that is where the problems begin. Cambridge Analytica brought this to light spectacularly in the 2016 US Presidential election.

Elections being manipulated, leading to people running countries which can impact the world, owing to people being influenced by content presented to them whilst online.

This is not a science fiction movie. I call it social engineering. People being engineered to do things they otherwise would not do.

More than 3.6billion people worldwide use social media, with major companies making vast fortunes with our data.

Data sharing expert Magnus Boyd a partner at law firm Schillings, explained: What are we giving away? The simple answer is everything.

Its not just the data the big tech companies are sharing with each other, but the businesses looking to trade via Facebook share their customers activities with Facebook.

Thats how Facebook learn what items I searched for, how long I spent on a page, what went into my shopping cart, whether I made a charitable donation somewhere.

There are some very powerful facts you can draw out about a person that they are not aware of. You could gauge someones aspirations, history, health, socioeconomic class.

The question of the age is, Does it matter? Some say the more of this you can provide, the richer your online experience.

It matters when people start to form judgments about you based on this info you have no control over. It doesnt matter if theyre working out I like jazz, but what if theyre forming other judgments? Increasingly, companies are aggregating data, like your Uber rating.

Theres an inherent judgment in that, if Im having a bad day and am annoyed and slam the Uber car door my rating goes down.

That on its own means nothing, but if all of that starts to get aggregated its a form of profiling. Suddenly youre a trouble maker!

Were seeing it in China, everybody has a digital passport, there are judgments in that and an ability to be marked down.

If you get too many bad credit ratings or customer service ratings, suddenly youre being denied things without any ability to know why or for redress. Thats pretty scary.

Paul Bischoff, privacy advocate at Comparitech.com, explains how sharing data results in bubbles where we only get fed our own viewpoints.

He said: In the case of Facebook, you give up your browsing history. When you visit the social networks site or app, a cookie is placed on your device.

That cookie is then used to track you on external sites that have a Facebook element, such as a Like button or comments section. Usually this information, after it is collected, is de-identified and used for content recommendations and sold to third-party advertisers.

But often the non-identifying information in your profile can be so specific that it could only belong to a single person.

Gardai warned of a rise in online scams during the Covid-19 pandemic, with well organised gangs using fraudulent means to trick people into sharing personal details.

Mr Burke said: My advice is think before we post messages, sharing personal information about ourselves that you wouldnt want strangers to know. You wouldnt stop and speak to a complete stranger in the shops and tell them intimate details of your life, yet people do this online.

Chris Hauk, consumer privacy champion at Pixel Privacy, explains why passwords are often so easy to guess for hackers.

He said: When you sign up for a social network, you begin sharing your location, information about your activities, photos, information about you and your friends and family, and so much more.

Facebook is especially intrusive. In addition to your Facebook activities, Facebook also tracks your browsing activity on the rest of the internet. Facebook uses this info for advertising purposes.

The information you post and share on social networks is also exposed to other users.

"Malicious users could use this info, including the answers to What is your favourite pets name? quizzes, to use social engineering to hack your accounts.

According to a survey by the EUs official statistical office, Eurostat, almost 90 per cent of Europeans aged between 16 and 24 are on social media.

The average teenager in Ireland now checks in at least 60 times a day, which has effects on the developing adolescent brain.

Unsah Malik, social media and influence expert, says we join because we want to feel connected in real life, and to feel good.

She explained: Social interaction is a basic human need and social media has essentially capitalised on that.

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Psychologically, when we engage in a conversation with strangers or post content and see a pool of people responding to us, dopamine signals in our brain increases for a little happy high.

She warned how this can become an addiction, adding: The damage social media addiction has on a person ranges from low self-esteem to anxiety, lack of performance and efforts in real life relationships and activities, and a distorted view on what the real world looks like.

"Its alarming, hence why its up to us as adults - or parents and teachers to children - to monitor our activity levels.

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Experts warn willingness to give away private info gives tech giants free reign to profile billions of users - The Irish Sun