ABSTRACT
This chapter describes a political economy approach to identify operational logics and unintended consequences for users. Social network sites (SNS) are ideal sites of inquiry for assessing the developing dynamics of personalization services, which include opaqueness, algorithmic-human interfacing and enactment, the reliance on big data including data trails and user-generated content, and the role of advertising as a driving factor. Facebook is particularly important as the dominant SNS and a strong indicator of industry trends that can migrate to other sites. Looking at personalization services on Facebook as a case study, the chapter analyzes advertising trends on the network, examines the role of predictive algorithms and their implications for users, and arrives at conclusions to help formulate user empowerment and agency. The convenience and familiarity of personalization services on social network sites should be weighed against their disadvantages, which includes ongoing surveillance, loss of informational privacy and self-determination.
