The Zuckening
Facebook leaks information from millions of users, but does anyone care?
By Kristina Rietveld-Rios Contributor
Last month, Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg faced an outraged Congress after the public learned about the Cambridge Analytica data leak. As a refresher, Cambridge Analytica is the data firm with connections to President Donald Trump’s 2016 election campaign that accessed information from 87 million Facebook users without their knowledge. Whether or not this had a direct effect on the election is unknown.
While the questions directed toward Zuckerberg addressed a variety of issues, from concerns regarding censorship of conservative posts to Facebook’s role in allowing fake news to spread during the 2016 election, the primary focus was discovering how Facebook collects and shares data with advertisers on its platform. According to Zuckerberg’s testimony, Facebook users own their own information and agree to allow advertisers to have access to it when they register a Facebook account. Zuckerberg stated several times that Facebook has many user controls to adjust how their data is used.
Are people concerned about their data privacy? The short answer is yes, they care a lot. According to a 2016 study from the National Cyber Security Alliance (NCSA) Consumer Privacy Index, more Americans are worried about data privacy than losing their main source of income. However, the reason they care is often based on fear of the unknown. There is a possible correlation between lack of understanding and how much people worry about their data privacy. Less than a third of those surveyed who are worried about data privacy said that they understood how companies used their personal information.
Rather than just providing tools, Facebook needs to play a role in making sure that those tools are used “for good.”
The survey occurred well before the Facebook leak, but the lack of understanding about how companies utilize their users’ information is still present. Zuckerberg received several questions from members of Congress about how Facebook uses their data. Facebook’s truncated privacy policies could be partly to blame, but even if the policies were comprehensive, data from the previously referenced NCSA study shows that only 16 percent of Americans take the time to read them anyway.
While there is no recent data on how Facebook’s data leak has affected the public’s concern for data privacy, Facebook has bounced back from the scandal quite well despite having made only minor policy changes. Facebook added 48 million daily users globally during the last quarter, which ended in March, after the data leak scandal. Facebook has also reported nearly $12 billion in revenue for 2018 so far, which is a 50 percent increase from last year around the same time.
One act that Zuckerberg did commit to is the need for Facebook to shift their views on responsibility for what happens on their platform. Rather than just providing tools, Facebook needs to play a role in making sure that those tools are used “for good.” Whether or not Facebook users care enough to stop using the site altogether remains to be seen.
