Review of Instagram Advertisement Algorithms

Instagram begin selling advertising in September 2014 as a way to generate more business and revenue for the company. After this change users of the social networking platform would find an advertisement directed at them while scrolling through their feed for a product they might be interested in purchasing, this is done through an algorithmic program in the platform. The process of knowing this technique isn’t new companies as Caudill and Murphy explain before the internet shopping became popular “They [inspectors] watched while buyers pick out strawberries and noted the process parents go through to choose a box of cereal. Consumers do not appear concerned about this invasion of privacy; after all, they are in a public place” (Caudill & Murphy, 2000, p.7).

They further elaborate on this topic that consumers felt comfortable though monitored, had their anonymity intact because they had a choice pay via cash for a product that they wanted. This anonymity unfortunately changes when consumers move onto the Internet. No longer are their shopping behaviours available only in the aggregate. Instead, individuals are tracked, and information is collected in to big data through machine learning which is then put in to algorithmic advertisement from purchasing transactions as they surf through websites (Caudill & Murphy, 2000). The privacy concern with this method being applied to internet users is the ways by which personal data is collected for one purpose (e.g. marketing) may be used for other sinister purposes and could have Impacts of life choices, prejudiced job recruitment, maintenance of stereotypes and being wrongly assessed.

Instagram’s way of collecting such data is identical to its parent company Facebook. The danger of these algorithmic advertisements became apparent in 2016, when Olivia Solon, a reporter for The Guardian newspaper, shared a screenshot to her profile of an email she had received containing threats of rape and murder towards her.

The company’s algorithms then turned the photo into an advertisement on Facebook, it then surfaced to Solon’s Facebook friends as an “advertisement’. Putting her at risk and making her obligation for respectful of personal privacy redundant. This situation is but one example of how big data driven by machine learning and AI isn’t the sufficient way of handling personal unnecessary data. Caudill and Murphy conclude this by saying “The voluntary nature of compliance is especially important to privacy advocates, who argue that businesses do not always compete with consumers” best interests in mind; it is more likely that the degree to which a business complies is based more on its own profit objectives” (Caudill & Murphy, 2000, p.12).