I lost my job due to Facebook and also the Cambridge Controversy
How do you sustain a business model in which users dont pay for your service.
Senator, We run ads.
This was one of the plethora of question that the congress asked Mark Zuckerberg in the fallout of Cambridge Analytica. For you it may be just a piece of news or a worrying reality. For me it has a personal connect. I lost my job. To understand why, we need to go back to 2014.
We were an Facebook App like FarmVille or Candy Crush trying to be the Linkedin of facebook. We allowed people to search jobs on fb and get referred via friends. Facebook had api’s, using which we could get your basic, work and edu info, books you read, movies you watched and the tons of info you liked. of-course with your permission. But to get your friends details we didn’t need their consent. Yours was sufficient.
As per Facebook’s own research each user had about 130 friends. Since we had access to your friends. We easily converted them to profile in the system. Thus helping us reach 70 M profiles from just 500 thousand users(dont remember the exact numbers). An recruiter, could technically search for you and contact you on fb. Our intentions were never wrong, but from a facebook user’s point of view, facebook allowed breach of privacy.
Every-time you visit a site you leave fingerprints. Using these digital fingerprints, websites can uniquely identify you. Your digital fingerprint is same on every site. If i sold your data to Site 2 he could easily identify you with digital fingerprint and use your personal info to target you.
This is what happened in case of cambridge analytica. The hottest topic after Trump’s tweets these days. If you haven’t heard of cambridge analytica then you sure must be living under the rocks.
Cambridge analytica acquired Facebook users data from a Facebook App developed by a Cambridge student Christopher W. Some reports even claim him to be the co-founder some say he was just a data scientist there. Christopher had developed a facebook app that was used by 500 thousand users. With each user having about 130 friends, he had data of about 50million internet users.
It used this data to help political parties target users. Politicians like Trump used their service to convince young voters in the last general elections. No wonder he won.
Apparently facebook came to know about this. What did it do.
Facebook : Yeh Christopher you did cheating you were not supposed to share this data. Go delete it and ask him too.
Christopher: Ok Facebook I will(wink 😉).
Facebook: Pinky swear
Christopher: Ys Pinky swear (double wink 😉 😉)
Facebook didnt even think it’s important to inform the affected users. And facebook isn’t alone. Uber did the same after its hack in 2016. (Uber hid its 2016 breach and even payed hackers to delete stolen data). Back to why i lost my job. I lost job coz of Max Schrems of ireland. This guy noticed what facebook was doing and he complained to EU.
Max: Eu Eu facebook allows my friends to share all my data.
EU: FB stop doing it.
Facebook complied. We could no longer game the system. Every new user = only 1 profile. Our backers backed out. I was on street. Ok the headline was not 100% correct but its not false either coz the crux of the issue is same.
Now am i angry at this guy?? No. Because of this guy I can sleep safely that my data is not with any malicious App.
In 2006 the worlds biggest social network was MySpace. Anyone with myspace account? Victor Keegan, a guardian reporter wrote in 2007 about the invisibility of MySpace
It is common knowledge that a fax machine is worthless until others have one too. That is what is happening in social networking except that, unlike a fax machine, it can’t be instantly swapped for another. It is easy to change search engines, even if it is Google. But if you change social networks you not only have to move all your videos, audios, messages, photos elsewhere but you also lose your network of friends unless they migrate with you. MySpace won’t make that easy…….. You can find almost anyone on MySpace and the more time that has been invested in the site, the more locked in people are”.
But today no one uses it. Similarly we had orkut in india. It was the largest network in india and was developed by google. I have fond memories of it. Google in 2014 shut it down coz majority had migrated to Facebook. We don’t just use a network coz its cool but because all our friends are on it.
But this time shit has happened, It’s time to migrate. WhatsApp co-founder Brian Acton’s tweet, ‘It is time. #deletefacebook’ sparked a lot of interest given the way Facebook has handled recent data leaks. Several Prominent celebs like Jim Carrey, Elon Musk’s SpaceX & Tesla, Steve Wozniak, have already deleted their facebook page. Join #DeleteFacebook or #UnfriendFacebook campaign and delete your FB account. If that’s too much, at least go delete all your data on FB like me. BTW if you go to settings, you can see everything facebook knows about you.
To summarise facebook’s permission system allowed apps access to all your data just because one of your friends used it. Facebook allowed this to continue till EU took matter in its own hand. Oh, EU made me jobless too. We cannot trust facebook or google to work in our best interest when their primary business model is Ads.
Pay extra attention to permissions an App asks. A chain is as strong as the weakest link. One lapse can make you vulnerable. Stay alert Stay safe.
