Carolina Markowskyj, specialist in law and technology: “Every selfie is a signature on a contract that you never read”

We are the most photographed generation in history. And also, without having signed anything in ink, the most observed.

These are not conspiracy theories. It is something much more everyday—and therefore more uncomfortable—: terms and conditions that we do not readalgorithms that learn our microexpressions, databases that know how we look without a filter, when we smile and even how we age.

“You are not the user of these platforms. You are the product. And your data, the raw material.”

Every day 2.5 quintillion bytes are generated in the world. And a significant part comes from us: our photosour location, our voice.

There is a well-known phrase in the tech world: If the service is free, the product is you. Social networks, filters and viral challenges work within an economic system that is based on something very specific: our attention, our behavior and, increasingly, our image.

When you upload a photo, you’re not just sharing a moment. Also you provide biometric data: the shape of your face, the distance between your eyes, your gestures. Information that many companies store, analyze, and—based on constantly changing policies—can use to train artificial intelligence, share with third parties or even sell.

Does it sound exaggerated? In 2020, the company Clearview AI collected more than three billion images taken from social networks without consent explicit to create a facial recognition base used by security forces in different countries. Many were ordinary selfies. Of common people.

Los trends They are, in essence, a perfect free content machine for platforms: they generate millions of similar pieces, sustain the algorithm and keep us participating almost without thinking. The problem appears when this participation begins to demand, more and more, that we show our face.

That’s where the classics come in: “how would I look with…?”, the filters that age or rejuvenate, the apps that show you with another look or another version of yourself. They are entertaining, yes. But they also function as tools of facial data collection disguised as entertainment. Fun is the hook. Data is what they are really looking for.

It is not about stopping using networks or becoming paranoid. It’s something simpler: pause, even briefly, before downloading an app, uploading a photo or joining a challengeand ask yourself what you are giving in exchange for your image.

There is something else, less visible: the pressure to participate. Trends create a feeling of immediate community. Those who do not join may feel that they are left out, bored or outdated. And that is no coincidence: The platforms are designed —and it is not a metaphor, but deliberate engineering—so that inclusion rewards and exclusion hurts.

It is not weakness to fall into that. It’s human. But Recognizing it is the first step to making more conscious decisions.. To choose when we want to participate and when we prefer to simply observe from the shore.

Your image belongs to you. Your data too. And you deserve not only to know, but to consciously choose who you are putting them in the hands of.