A lot has been said recently about the connection between Facebook and Cambridge Analytica. The firm used personal information harvested from more than 50 million Facebook users without permission to help them help Donald Trump win the American election. At the same time this was exposed, CEO Alexander Nix was secretly filmed boasting of using manufactured sex scandals, fake news and dirty tricks to swing elections around the world. Add to this a former Facebook manager who has warned that hundreds of millions of users are likely to have had their private information used by private companies in the same way and you might be beginning to think ‘is this the end for Facebook?’
As it stands, no, Facebook is not about to die a death however it has had billions wiped off it’s stock value and has lost millions of users as a result. As to how much they will be hit, time is yet to tell as users start to do their research into just how much, and exactly what, data is stored by Facebook about them. Recent revelations have shown users discovering their entire phone book, call logs and texts have all been stored onto FB’s servers, a massive breach of privacy for the users who have not given permission for their data to be mined.
So, Who’s at Fault?
Investigations are still ongoing as to whether or not data laws were breached but the ultimate argument for Facebook and Cambridge Analytica is that the data was handed over voluntarily during the time users were on Facebook.
This is where the matter becomes cloudy, yes, users did volunteer their data however no-one appeared to anticipate the insidious nature of the data collection and what is was being used for. It would probably be fair to say that most people thought it would be used to target advertising towards them whilst on the site, not to be used as a mass manipulation tool by a private company to swing an election.
If you look online there are now plenty of videos and walkthroughs explaining how to find out what data FB holds about you and to remove/change that information as you see fit. It will be interesting to see just how much of that data is stripped away by users appalled by the amount of information held on them. Even more so will be to see how they adopt their business model to accommodate for the potentially mass exodus of information they have become so complacent in receiving and selling on.
A Social Awakening?
The upside to this whole situation is the digital awakening of internet users. As a result of this incident users are much more aware that their data can be used for all sorts of purposes, some useful, some malicious, but ultimately not used in their interests but those of corporations and businesses (and even governments).
Users are happy for their information to be used to help their digital journey and to make recommendations, but they appear to draw the line at manipulating political events such as elections or referendums. This is quite understandable being as elections and referendums are about personal choice and the thought that we may be influenced by a clandestine operation hidden within the pages of our social media channels doesn’t give you that ‘feel good’ factor about the usage of your data.
And the future?
We’ll see. Mark Zuckerberg, despite his rather late and underwhelming apology (it was issued 5 days after the story broke), has agreed that social media companies need more regulation to ensure the protection of users’ data. The cynic in me can’t help but feel that had regulation been brought in before this incident, tech firms would be screaming that the government wants to constrain them and stifle their creativity, bureaucracy, red tape etc…. yet when they are caught red-handed showing they cannot be trusted to self-regulate, they call for government regulation but that’s a conversation for another day.
Overall, I would predict massive changes in Facebooks policy regarding user data. It would be hard for Facebook to survive without doing so as another incident like this could be the nail in the coffin. I also hope users of social media will think a lot more about what they are posting, who they are sharing it with and what apps/surveys/games they partake in.
Being as this is an industry that thrives on innovation and disruption, if Facebook can’t sort their problems out, some other tech savvy entrepreneur will come along with a new social media channel that will; and take all Zuckerberg’s 2 billion followers with them.
