GDPR Assessment on Social Media Data Analysis using Machine Learning Algorithms

Abstract
This paper explores the General Data Protection Regulation (GDPR) assessment on social Media
data analysis using machine learning Algorithms (ML). With over 3Billion users on social media
worldwide, Digital marketing is taking advantage of marketing their products on social media.
Companies are so much into Data mining whereby automated intelligence (AI) and machine
learning algorithms (ML) are used to mine personal data for Digital marketing. Since Data
mining involves many participants, the ethical issues have to be observed during Data processing
to ensure the user is aware of several factors before the whole process is complete. This paper
shows how GDPR is involved to ensure ethical issues are fully put into consideration by users
and organizations as social media data is being analyzed for personalized ads and other uses.
Rules and Regulations have been set to guide the process and guarantee safety for social media
users all over the world. Without rules, the analysis might end up causing harm to the users while
benefiting businesses. The paper highlights some GDPR that must be updated since they don’t
put social media into consideration yet most of the internet users are on social media. This paper
also discusses the future of digital marketing by use of blockchain as a solution for social media
data management. It goes further to explain how decentralization by blockchain helps secure
personal data and help data users own and control their data.

Contents
Abstract............................................................................................................................................1
Introduction......................................................................................................................................2
Use of Automated Intelligence (AI) and machine learning Algorithms (ML)............................4
Challenges due to Ethical concerns.............................................................................................5
GDPR and compliance.................................................................................................................8
Use of Blockchain as a solution in Advertising.........................................................................11
Conclusion.....................................................................................................................................13
References......................................................................................................................................14

Introduction
People all over the world have embraced the use of internet more so the use of social media
platforms. Many have subscribed to these sites such as Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, LinkedIn,
and others. Digital marketing has capitalized on this growing number of social Media thus
analyzing their data for their business gain. Young people are always looking forward to being
the next trending Instagram photo, tweet or YouTube blogger. As a result, they end up providing
so much information which is in turn analyzed by machine learning algorithms (ML) and
automated machines. The automated machines go through all the information that is posted on
social media to know which product will suit the user. This data is mined and used to create
personalized ads that automatically pop up online when the user is browsing. The data is
collected and used without the owner's consent, and some companies store the already used data
to be used for another purpose without the user's consent. This poses questions of just how safe
that personal data is.
Facebook is the largest social media network in the world. Since its inception, Facebook has
collected over 300 petabytes of personal data across its network. According to Meire, Ballings,
and Van den Poel ( 2016), the received data is analyzed and used in companies for innovation
and economic growth. As data mining increases, concerns have been raised by the public about
the privacy of the personal data collected and the use of the collected data. The public wants to
own their data and is informed why their data is being collected to stop their sensitive data from
being accessed by the public. General data protection regulations (GDPR) have laid down some
rules that are to be followed, but this isn’t the best solution. A permanent solution has to be
invented to ensure there is fair play in this whole process. With the introduction of Blockchain,
there is definitely hope for both users and businesses because it provides complete safety of the
process. Blockchain Encrypts data making it hard to be accessed.

AI is an Automated Machine Intelligence System is rapidly replacing humans by carrying out
human tasks to increase the quality and quantity of interactions on social media between
customers and businesses. Automated Intelligence (AI) analyses the information of a person to
create a personalized advertisement that will automatically pop up especially on social media
like Facebook, Twitter, Instagram and other platforms all over the world (Crawford and Calo,
2016 )
These automated machines have been programmed to analyze by going through every browsing
history and collecting information without considering the negative outcome. Some of the
information collected by the AI machines is very sensitive and should never land in the hands of
the public; otherwise, it could cause a lot of harm to the user. Going through peoples profiles
without their consent is unethical because some of the information shared is private even if they
post in public on social media it doesn't give a right to any company to use it. Social media users
have a right to choose what they want to see and what they don't want to see, analyzing them to
do a personalized ad might make some users feel like they are being forced to watch these ads.
The tools analyze customers, competitors, campaigns and the industry by going through user’s
profiles, posts, clicks on a link, likes, comments or views for a video, events among other
information that is shared on social media platforms across the world (Yuste et al., 2017)
Use of Automated Intelligence (AI) and machine learning Algorithms (ML)
Automated intelligence tools are used to analyze users by going through their posts, comments,
videos, and the entire user profile to identify the influencers of a brand. The profile of
subscribers is analyzed to see their interests and if the user has a huge following. It goes through
the post engagement as it gauges to see if that profile suits the brand and question. The process is
done without the consent of the user and as a result, the collected data mind end up in the public