Social media platforms are very persistent in capturing whatever data and personal information they can. From location data to identifying facial recognition and mass surveillance, this information has a vast value so collecting facial and audio ‘prints’ simply adds more data to analyse and profit from.

Users should be aware of what personal information is being stored on them by day-to-day applications, but it is important users are also aware that these companies often share it with advertisers, governments or any third party they choose.

When an app or service is free, the user becomes the product. However, more worrying is when the user is fully aware of how they profit but chooses to ignore the warnings. This sort of mass collection of data may only come to light negatively in the future once it is too late to redact the information.