Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society

Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate

1 Warmer
Which of these social media do you use? Which one is the best? Why?

1. WhatsApp 5. Tumblr
2. Twitter 6. Snapchat
3. Facebook 7. other
4. Instagram

2 Key words
Fill the gaps in the sentences using these key words from the text. The paragraph numbers will help you.

track profile stalking browsing ex

1. On a social-media website, your ______________________ has a lot of personal details about you. (para 1)
2. An ______________________ is the person that you used to be married to or have a romantic relationship
with. (para 1)
3. ______________________ is the activity of looking at websites on the internet in no particular order. (para 1)
4. ______________________ is the crime of watching and following someone in a threatening way. (para 2)
5. If you ______________________ someone, you follow their movements. (para 2)

access spyware harass bugging delete

6. ______________________ is the use of hidden electronic equipment to listen secretly to what someone is
saying. (para 3)
7. If you have______________________ to someone’s profile, you have the right to see private information.
(para 4)
8. If you ______________________ information stored on a computer, you remove that information. (para 5)
9. If you ______________________ someone, you keep annoying or upsetting them by criticizing them,
attacking them or treating them in a way that is offensive to them. (para 7)
10. _____________________ is computing software that records information about you and your internet use.
(para 7)

3 Find the information

Find the following information in the text as quickly as possible.
1. How much does a hidden car-tracking device cost?
2. How much does a spy camera cost?
3. When did Facebook introduce ‘timeline’?
4. When did Facebook introduce ‘take a break’?
5. Which three technologies are private stalkers using?
6. When did the ‘techlash’ (an angry reaction to this type of technology) begin?
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NEWS LESSONS / Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
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Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
Social-media spying is turning us into
a stalking society
Keza MacDonald
13 Febuary, 2018
1 Have you ever opened the Instagram profile of
an ex-boyfriend or girlfriend and looked sadly at
photos of them happy with someone else? How
about meeting someone new and then browsing
their Facebook page to get to know them better?
I think anyone who has ever used social media is
lying if they say they have never done this.
2 Social media has made normal the kind of
behaviour that people called stalking in the past.
Think about what you had to do to stare at your
ex with someone else in the 90s; you had to
follow them around or break into their house to
steal photographs. But now, for some people, it
could be an easy step from “normal” social-media
stalking to downloading a phone app that listens
to their conversations or tracks their movements.
3 Bugging and GPS-tracking used to be so
expensive that only governments and private
investigators used them. Now, you can buy a
hidden car-tracking device for $27 and a spy
camera for $52. These items are sold to parents
to control their children’s behaviour or to help
teenagers learn to drive but there is nothing to
stop people using them for other things.
4 People often believe that there is a big difference
between innocent social-media stalking and the
kind of stalking that is criminal behaviour. But the
gap between the two is not as big as we think.
Twitter, Facebook and Instagram have made
the idea of having access to people whenever
we want seem normal and slowly destroyed the
idea of personal privacy. People have become
comfortable with the idea that governments
and companies are tracking them through their
phones. They only complain when they realize
how much they are being watched.
© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2018
NEWS LESSONS / Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
5 Social-media companies don’t often think too
much about what happens when things go wrong.
When Facebook introduced its “timeline” in 2011,
it made your complete Facebook history available
to any new friend. They demonstrated the idea
with a video of a happy couple from the time they
meet to the time they get married. But I thought:
what happens if they get divorced? The only
solution to this was to carefully delete old posts
one by one. Then, Facebook introduced a “take
a break” function in 2015 to solve the problem of
failed relationships. It seems that social-media
companies somehow did not realize that they
were providing excellent tools for stalkers.
6 When you accept someone as a friend or
follower, even on private profiles, you usually give
them access to everything you’ve ever posted.
What if you realize later that person
is dangerous?
7 Is Twitter responsible if people use it to harass
other people? Is Instagram responsible when
someone uses it to stalk an ex? Should the
developers of spyware also be criminally
responsible when someone uses it to illegally
watch a husband or wife? These are all questions
that we need to ask. I’m sure that governments
will do that eventually. But they should see
that they have helped create this problem. The
technologies we now use for private stalking –
GPS tracking, microphone-hijacking and spy
cameras – were often developed and used by
governments for spying or tracking people.
8 But since 2016, a “techlash” has been growing
– people have started to question spyware and
other products. The main reason for this is the
tech industry’s failure to consider the social and
moral effects of its products.
© Guardian News and Media 2018
First published in The Guardian, 13/02/18
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Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
4 Comprehension check
Match the beginnings and endings to make statements about the text.

1. Social media has made it normal to behave in a. … governments invented for spying.
a way …
2. When you accept someone as a friend or b. … that was illegal in the past.
follower on social media, …
3. Stalkers use technology that … c. … that governments and companies are tracking
them through their phones.

4. Devices such as spy cameras … d. … made your complete Facebook history available
to any new friend.
5. Many people don’t seem to care … e. … are much cheaper now than they used to be.

6. Facebook’s ‘timeline’ … f. … you give them access to everything you have

ever posted.

5 Chunks
Rearrange the words to make phrases from the text.
1. big think not as we as
2. things wrong when go
3. one delete posts one old by
4. posted everything you ever have
5. profile Instagram the of boyfriend an ex-
6. personal the privacy of idea

6 Two-word expressions
Match the words in the left-hand column with those in the right-hand column to make expressions from
the text.

1. spy a. industry
2. social b. app
3. GPS c. camera
4. phone d. investigator
5. tech e. media
6. private f. tracking
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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2018

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NEWS LESSONS / Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
CA O
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 Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
7 Expressions with prepositions
Complete the phrases from the text using these prepositions.

by at to to for into

1. stare _______ someone

2. break _______ someone’s house

3. give someone access _______ everything you’ve posted

4. one _______ one

5. make your history available _______ anyone

6. using them _______ other things

8 Discussion
• Are you worried about social media and your privacy? Why? Why not?

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© Macmillan Publishers Ltd 2018

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NEWS LESSONS / Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
CA O
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Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society
Level 1 l Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
KEY

2 Key words 5 Chunks

1. profile 1. not as big as we think

2. ex 2. when things go wrong
3. browsing 3. delete posts one by one
4. stalking 4. everything you have ever posted
5. track 5. the Instagram profile of an ex-boyfriend
6. bugging 6. the idea of personal privacy
7. access
8. delete
9. harass 6 Two-word expressions
10. spyware
1. c
2. e
3 Find the information 3. f
4. b
1. $27 5. a
2. $52 6. d
3. in 2011
4. in 2015
5. GPS tracking, microphone-hijacking, spy cameras 7 Expressions with prepositions
6. in 2016
1. at
2. into
4 Comprehension check 3. to
4. by
1. b 5. to
2. f 6. for
3. a
4. e
5. c
6. d
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NEWS LESSONS / Social-media spying is turning us into a stalking society / Pre-intermediate / Intermediate
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