Meta are allowing you to share your NFTs on Instagram and Facebook. Sounds great, right? Maybe not. Is there something sketchy afoot here that we should be worried about?…
Facebook is the embodiment of the Web2 movement… Centralised, for-profit platforms that harvest your data and target you with adverts. They create functionality you enjoy, and keep profiting as you share, click, and buy.
Web3, on the other hand, is attempting to give control and ownership back to the individual. To have a more sharing-focused economy, and protect individual privacy through cryptography and pseudonymity.
Do you see where I’m going with this yet?…
While I’m sure there’s some utility in allowing people to ‘share’ (read: flex) their NFTs on social media platforms, the underlying requirement is to connect whichever wallet holds your NFTs. At which point you are now pairing your public social media profile with your pseudonymous Web3 profile…
And now Meta (and any organisation it shares data with: private or public sector) has the ability to track any activities performed with that wallet from public ledger data.
And all because you wanted to flex your BAYC PFP 🙈
If this announcement isn’t ringing alarm bells for you, maybe it should. People may have multiple wallets. They may be ok with their on-chain data being visible to Facebook. But I wonder how many have actually thought through the implications of this. For example, from a wallet and corresponding on-chain data, Meta could learn:
– How much crypto you hold in your NFT wallet
– Which marketplaces you buy from
– Which other wallets (and then who) you transact with
– Which sites you have connected your wallet to
– Your trading behaviour or persona
And a lot more. And the giant Meta data crunching machine can then make all sorts of other inferences that could affect the privacy of others you regularly interact with.
