Individual Facebook user data shared by thousands of companies

Facebook, and all the other social media companies alike, have been under fire for a long time for data sharing. It has almost gotten creepy to a point. Whenever you merely speak about a subject aloud, you will almost certainly see an ad related to that topic on your apps. It is everywhere we turn, scroll, and speak.

A Consumer Reports study recently found that amid all your browsing on Facebook, numbers show that some users had their data tracked and shared by over 7,000 companies. The number of companies per person was about 2,230 on average.

Andy Hogue of the Travis County GOP says while we all scroll through life thinking it is free, we need to always remember that nothing in this world is free.

"As long as you are getting something for free, you re the product, not the consumer...anytime you get something for free, you should always ask 'why?' and what the tradeoff is," he says. "There is always a reason."

But we are at a point now where we are so desensitized to the tracking that we just do not care.

"The tradeoff is something we are willing to give out...we are willing to let them have meager movements to the grocery store and to our friend's house," he says.

It is not just obscure companies looking at your data either. Places like Home Depot, Walmart, Macy's, and other big conglomerates are figuring out how to reach their next wave of customers.

Eventually, however, you can regulate until the cows come home, but that may not be enough to stave off the government getting involved.

"That is when it gets scary...when government becomes the one tracking your movements, that is when our liberties become jeopardized," he says.

But, among the youth, Facebook's popularity is fleeting, at best. They are more focused on their Instagram and Tik Tok accounts. Which is a considerable problem for Facebook.

"As the younger generation grows up...fewer and fewer of the active market share are going to be involved on Facebook unless they make some major changes very soon," he says.

But in the end, no matter how problematic the issue might be overall, we are just too desensitized to fight back.

"It is up to us to stand up and resist calls...even Republicans have been calling for regulations on social media to prevent media bias or child sex trafficking...but I think we need to push for more freedom, not less," says Hogue. "Even when it may affect our overall goals...we need to consider what kind of culture of freedom we are fermenting."