Social media companies such as Facebook, Tic Tok, and Instagram have created platforms that encourage users to spend large amounts of their time interacting with them. These companies make money by gathering information about its users and selling that information, or selling pointed advertising by using the personal information that they have collected and “matching” a user with a product or service that seems to fit that user’s personal information. These companies do not pay users for their information and make it difficult for users to opt out of this information collection process. 

Are these companies acting ethically, and why or why not? What rules should be implemented, if any, to better regulate these companies’ activities?