Should Tech Be Regulated?
Recently, it was brought to our attention that the Cambridge Analytical scandal with Facebook, is just the tip of the iceberg. As their scandal unraveled and each day more and more information was being dug up, the #deletefacebook movement is gaining traction and rightfully so.
For those of you who aren’t aware, as a result of the privacy scandal involving Facebook, angry users were taking matters into their own hands (as well as some notable companies) and started deleting their facebook pages and profiles. This includes any other accounts they have on various other Facebook owned platforms, such as instagram. As people were deleting their profiles, they took it upon themselves to download their information from the platform and what was found is shocking.
As it turns out, Facebook isn’t the innocent “law abiding citizen” that we have come to love over the past decade. They have access to your phone records, text messages, your contacts, pretty much any and all valuable information that could be stored on your devices. Of course Facebook issued a statement stating how any and all information collected was from an opt-in program through messenger, however many are skeptical of this, including myself.
It seems like Facebook’s facade of being your friend is being broken piece by piece and the government is looking to take action in regulating tech. Which brings me to the point of this article: should tech be regulated? I think the question shouldn’t be “if” but “how”. There is no question that companies, such as facebook, need to be held accountable for their actions, or lack thereof.
The social media giant has made it very clear that they have no intention of holding themselves to a standard of excellence when it comes to protecting its user base, so the intervention of the government is necessary at this point. The real sad part of this is how many people sign up for social platforms, not realizing how much of their own private information is being harvested, then used and sold to pad the bottom line of multiple companies.
We live in an age when our personal information is not so personal, but we should be able to control how and where our information is distributed. This decision needs to be in the hands of the user, not the company who has a vested interest in utilizing your information to the fullest extent.
So to answer my original question after all this rambling, I think the key to regulating companies like Facebook that are worth over half a TRILLION dollars is accountability. Simply invoking a universal standard for privacy protection of users who sign up for any platform, where their information is at risk of being harvested, is essential. Then create incredibly stiff penalties for all companies that don’t comply. Maybe this means huge fines, maybe this means the inability to operate within a certain jurisdiction, where an incident occurred, in the future.
I don’t have all the answers, but making it easier for people to access their privacy settings and having full and total control over every aspect of their information distribution channels is something I believe would be a step in the right direction. Giving the control back to the people and users that made your platform what it is today is the only chance Facebook and other companies alike have at redemption. Maybe I am wrong, but if one thing is for sure, things will be unraveling for a while and it is unclear how deep the cut will go for Facebook.
What are your thoughts on the whole privacy/cybersecurity situation? Let me know.
Till next time, read between the lines
