#UnDeleteFacebook
Let’s talk for a sec about all that private data everyone is so angry about…
Everyone is saying how people should leave Facebook because of the whole Facebook Cambridge Analytica scandal. It’s a big scandal and everyone is writing about it and saying how serious this is. If there was a breach it’s serious of course. Facebook probably really messed up the privacy by design, and they should investigate the matter and fix it of course.
But let’s talk for a sec about all that private data everyone is so angry about… I say that the data in question isn’t all that important. I know it sounds strange but bear with me.
As a founder of a company that connects to Facebook data to better serve our customers, the FB data isn’t that important from a privacy standpoint. When you check in to places it means you want to say to the world or just to your 500 friends that you were at that place. You would not share cheating on your partner or skipping school or work. When you say you like this band, yet hate that band, and don’t really care about this or that movie, it is all not that private because you share it with other people.
The fact that there was a breach that caused private info to be shared with a dubious company is of course an issue, but as users of Facebook I don’t think that Facebook data is different than any other data we provide while googling, registering to all kinds of things, buying stuff… This is the way the world runs these days and a lot of services run better because of this shared data. The ads everyone is afraid of are more relevant, so you get better suited ads and not annoying banners that are irrelevant to you.
Let’s be honest: all of us Facebook users have a Facebook persona. We share (even to friends only) only what we want to share. And what we don’t want to share we don’t.
On Facebook we all look like shiny happy people that are on vacation 24/7. On Instagram it’s even more pronounced — we look like super stars with a snobby artist side career on a never-ending vacation around the world.
So this info shows advertisers what we like etc. and can be used for all kinds of boring statistics but I wouldn’t call it really private.
Private is your bank account. Private is your email account with all your dark secrets. Private is medical records you don’t want insurance companies to see. Private is the photos you don’t want to share on Facebook. That’s why we don’t share those things on Facebook. Duhh.
So, I say check the breach and find the guilty parties etc. But we don’t have to become an anti-Facebook mob yet.
And don’t forget to share this on Facebook ;)