What are we agreeing to when we accept the terms and conditions for a social media account?

Dr. Nicholas Greco at Providence University College says we are not a customer on social media, rather in exchange for the services we're provided, we are agreeing to be the product, having our information used and sold.

"We don't realize what's going on when we are online. We often times think that everything is alright and we can do whatever we want online, that's not really the case. Especially when we're using free services we don't always think there's a cost associated with free services but, of course, there is. Anything that's free there is, in fact, an exchange going on, we're just not always aware of that exchange."

Greco says this isn't necessarily a bad thing, but we do need to be aware of it.

"Many people have said to me, 'it doesn't matter, I have nothing to hide, I'm not putting anything particularly useful or very personal online, so it doesn't matter.' But from what we've seen from some of these events that have happened recently with Facebook is that groups like Cambridge Analytica and some other apps have used people's accounts. So, people have agreed to fill out a survey, let's say, or some of this material has been agreed through Facebook to go to Cambridge Analytica and then what's happened is these apps have then looked through a person's contact list and got all that information as well."

He adds while people may be consenting to Facebook using their personal information, they may be unaware that it's being used by third parties as well.

"While we may not have anything to hide," notes Greco. "We always have to be careful. How far does it go? How far are we willing to let our information go? Do we want to know what it's going to be used for at every step of the way? Maybe that's something we need to think about."

Dr. Nicholas Greco (Photo credit: Providence)He notes though we may be able to have control over how much information we give, at the point of consenting to the terms and conditions we've given up control of our information and how it's used. He adds, this doesn't mean we shouldn't still be literate in understanding who is using our information and for what reason they're using that information.

"Media literacy is the ability to understand what's going on in the media. Media literacy is being able to tell what is true and what isn't true. To understand how information is used and also which information is useful to us," says Greco. "It's about watching the news and knowing what is actually happening in the world and what isn't. We are fed all kinds of information and we need to know which information we should consume and which information we should let go of."

Greco notes media literacy also suggests that we can enter into that relationship with Facebook and try to change things. He adds we don't have the power to do that so easily, but we should try to effect change.

Now, what are the next steps?

Greco says if some of our information has already been accessed, it's out there, but we should still be reviewing our social media privacy settings.

"I think we just need to be extra vigilant as users. It's not only that but we really should recognize that we're the product that Facebook is actually using. We think of ourselves as clients or customers but we are, in fact, the product. I'm not saying it's bad, I'm saying we need to remember that."

As well, he says we should be reviewing our terms and conditions and reading through terms and conditions before accepting into such a contract.

"They're so long and they're complicated, difficult to understand most of the time. So, we don't read those terms and conditions. I'm not saying that we should read them because it's not easy to read these long documents, maybe we should skim over them or do some research and find out what is actually in these agreements before we sign them."

Going into the future, Greco says he can see two different options. He notes the first option is we'll continue having more of the same, the second option is to move towards a subscription model which means the business models for those services would have to change.

"The thing is, when these services are free and have been free for so long, I suspect users wouldn't be very open to paying for them. So, I wonder what will happen. I suspect it will be more of the same."

Greco adds instead of quitting social media as the #deletefacebook messages suggest, why not get onto social media and collectively help make it a better place.