A Few Thoughts on Facebook
As someone who worked in crisis communications, I feel for the members of Facebook’s communications team with everything they’ve been dealing with the past week. Unless you’re the most ignorant man in America, there’s little chance you missed Facebook’s self-inflicted week from hell.
This is a massive situation that is still developing. And while there are so many different pieces to this story, I wanted to share some thoughts on a few elements that interested me.
The Media’s Initial Characterization of a “Breach”
When The New York Times and The Guardian broke the Cambridge Analytica news last weekend, the story was initially framed as a data breach. But there wasn’t a data breach.
These stories were shared a lot online. I’m a subscriber to both the NYT and Guardian and respect the work they do, but each should have done a better job to accurately report what happened. We already have enough problems dealing with people believing and sharing “fake news.”
Kudos to Vice for explaining why this wassn’t a data breach.
Facebook’s Response or Lack Thereof
Facebook was way too slow to respond, and when it did, the response sucked. By the time Facebook went public, #deletefacebook was in full swing. They knew this was issue along time ago and should have been better prepared to handle it.
Blame Yourself
Yes, it’s bad Facebook did this, but everyone willingly gave Facebook their personal information. You literally turned everything over to them on your own.
Facebook is not your friend. You are not Facebook’s customer. You and all the information you freely share with Facebook are products that it then sells to its real customers — advertisers.
If you want to argue about your privacy rights, read Facebook’s terms of service agreement and then watch the “HumancentiPad” episode of South Park.
¯\_(ツ)_/¯
There’s Worse
If you think you’re upset now about your privacy and all the data about you that’s out there, just do some research on a company called Palantir. You might cry.
