As the world marks International Data Privacy Day 2026 on Wednesday (January 28), the question of how secure our personal data truly is has sparked data privacy debates worldwide. From the apps we use every day to the AI tools we increasingly rely on, our digital footprints are constantly being tracked, analysed, and monetised, often without our full awareness.
With data breaches, targeted advertising, and algorithmic surveillance becoming part of daily life, experts say it’s time for users to pause and reconsider what “privacy” even means in a world where almost everything is connected.
Data privacy on social media
The conversation around privacy isn’t new, but recent controversies have made it impossible to ignore. Popular apps such as WhatsApp, Instagram, YouTube, and X (formerly Twitter) have all faced criticism over how they handle user data.
Meta-owned WhatsApp has come under repeated scrutiny for sharing user metadata with its parent company, raising concerns about how much information is used for targeted advertising and behavioural profiling. Last week, a lawsuit was filed in the US District Court for the Northern District of San Francisco, claiming that Meta can read your WhatsApp chats.
Despite end-to-end encryption in chats, privacy advocates argue that Meta and WhatsApp actually store, analyse, and can access virtually all user communications, even though they publicly state otherwise.
On Instagram, concerns have deepened following revelations about how the platform collects location data and tracks user activity even when the app is closed. Last year, Instagram launched a new feature called location sharing. The feature was shockingly accurate with addresses.
Several users flagged the issue, saying it could be putting people in danger by revealing their whereabouts without their knowledge.
Meanwhile, YouTube, the most popular video-streaming app, has also been accused of collecting vast amounts of data on viewing habits, feeding into its powerful recommendation system that keeps users watching for hours. Regulators in the European Union have questioned whether such systems exploit behavioural data to the point of manipulation.
X, under Elon Musk’s ownership, has also sparked debate by relaxing privacy standards and allowing more data integration with third-party services.
Musk’s plan to turn X into an “everything app” has raised concerns about potential cross-linking of financial, social, and behavioural data. This prospect could further blur the boundaries between convenience and surveillance.
What’s particularly alarming, as technology experts point out, is how normalised this trade-off has become. In exchange for free access and connectivity, billions of users unknowingly offer their personal data as currency.
Every click, scroll, and interaction feeds algorithms designed not just to personalise experiences but to predict and influence behaviour. The result is a digital ecosystem where privacy is less a right and more a privilege, one that few users truly understand they’ve surrendered.
How AI models are feeding on our data
Adding to these concerns is the rise of artificial intelligence, which has introduced a new layer of complexity to data privacy. AI models thrive on vast datasets, the very content users create, post, and share online every day. Whether it’s text, photos, or voice recordings, nearly all forms of digital activity can become raw material for machine learning.
In the past year, several tech giants have faced legal action for how their AI systems collect and use data. OpenAI, the company behind ChatGPT, is currently facing lawsuits in the United States over allegations that it used copyrighted or personal data without consent.
Google has been accused of scraping web content, including private or sensitive material, to train its AI models. At the same time, Meta faces multiple investigations in Europe over the use of personal data to build and refine its AI algorithms.
Privacy advocates warn that AI is now seeping into everyday life, embedded in search engines, social media feeds, voice assistants, and even email clients. While these systems promise convenience, they also rely on constant data collection to improve accuracy and relevance, often in ways that remain opaque to users.
As nations worldwide debate stronger data protection laws and the ethical use of AI, International Data Privacy Day serves as a voice calling for the protection of personal data for internet users, particularly those on social media apps. The logic is simple: data is new oil. Our data is the currency of the digital world, and it’s time we learned its actual cost.
