If you’ve ever wondered how social media companies operate, spend so much money, and employ so many people without charging to use their apps. It’s because they sell your information, how you act, and what you consume.

By using this information, they create hyper specific targeted ads. Decreasing the amount of ads these companies have to push out while increasing the profit they can make for every ad they show.

While this may seem lighthearted, that it’s “no big deal”, selling your information can lead to data breaches and misuse of data. When surveyed, 80% of Americans reported fear of data misuse.

“I worry about companies like TikTok stealing my information, but I never really do anything about it,” said senior, Zach Madsen.

“When I use Instagram, I know they make money off of me, I just don’t really care, said senior, Sam Brown.

Most of us know that there are risks to using social media, but we use it anyways. If you want to reduce your risk of being tracked and your data being collected, you can use a VPN to protect yourself.