#Delete Facebook
$9 Billion lost in a matter of days. The social network, the app that started it all; connecting people all over the globe. Yes, I am talking about Facebook. The social media source that we as children waited to be able to open, the one that now houses a lot of club and school information within private groups. For years we have seen data and articles warning about the dangers of Facebook, how the social media platform tracks your personal information, how the newfound emojis on the app are simply a psychological monitor to see how you react to different posts.
Just the other day, I was looking something up on my laptop for my economics class, and when I decided to aimlessly scroll through Facebook later that night on my phone, all of these ads and articles about economics began showing up on my feed. Okay, not a big deal right? I mean it's simply trying to tailor to my likes and dislikes, only I wasn't logged into Facebook on my laptop, so how did my information suddenly get to my feed? It got me thinking, how much control does Facebook actually have? I mean if you aren't logged in how in the world can they track my every mouse tap? Isn't that an invasion of privacy?
Reports have surfaced that the UK based data collection company Cambridge Analytica has been harvesting data from over 50 million Facebook accounts. It's no secret, that the discussion of privacy when it comes to social media accounts has been going on for years, but this incident differs than others. How? Well, for starters, Facebook knew about the breech of information back in 2015 when the Guardian published an article about 40 Million accounts being harvested. But, why didn't we the people, we the Facebook users hear about this? Facebook managed to brush the article under the rug and keep similar claims out of the media.
For three years now, we have been in the dark about the issue at hand. So just how much information is Facebook giving away about us? Facebook employees have said that it is within their Constitutional rights to sell some of our data and profile information to 3rd party companies, after all what's posted to the internet is public knowledge. But, just how far reaching is Facebook and other social media platforms willing to go?
How many times have you seen unwanted things be recommended on your Facebook feed? Whether it is something you have never took an interest in, something that opposes your values, or something complete political? It seems to be more and more of a daily occurrence, and turns out, it's not an accident. With the new information about Cambridge Analytica harvesting Facebook data, links have been directly made to the Trump Campaign team in 2016.
Currently the company is being investigated for trying to influence Americans' votes by using the data. While the Facebook company tried to save their own bacon by acting "surprised" about the issue at hand, Cambridge Analytica has been a partner of Facebook since 2007. For over 10 years this company has been collecting information from Facebook. With further investigation, it looks as if the same company influenced the Brexit vote as well. Although the investigation of potential Russian ties are still under investigation.
As far as political influence goes, Cambridge Analytica CEO Alexander Nix has been reported saying that sometimes they "send girls" to opponents houses to damage their image, or offer them a large sum of money to come out and admit to being guilty of an allegation even if it holds no merit. Where does a company get off doing this? What happened to oh I don't know letting the people speak for what they believe in?
What's rather unsettling is that fact that based on these few facts that have been released, clearly high up politicians have known about this breech of privacy, simply using it to their own advantage. Leave it to the government to yet again take advantage of the people who give them power? While both parties agree that the issue violates the privacy of the people, they still find a way to point fingers at each other, deflecting the responsibility from themselves.
With the connection to top Republican donors and Cambridge Analytica, it raises the question of how much influence the company had over the 2016 election. Is it true that they helped Trump secure the election with the data they harvested? Planting information into people's Facebook feeds to influence the way they think? Did they plant evidence on Hillary Clinton, offer her campaign a large sum of money? It's hard to tell what is the truth anymore when it comes to anything political. Of course, Republicans have a different focus to the story, focusing on how the breech exemplifies how Facebook and other social media platforms have become surveillance for the government.
By: The Verge
So what are we as people supposed to think? What's true about the issue and how much more to the breech is there? Clearly it must be extensive if Facebook tried to do everything in their power to prevent news being released of Cambridge Analytica's data collection methods. As of yesterday Mark Zuckerberg released a statement about the issue, but what's interesting is he never mentions what people want to hear... sorry, we are doing what we can to fix the issue, we find ways to better protect your data.
The American people have begun speaking, deleting their Facebook accounts and encouraging others to do the same. It's started a movement, known as #Delete Facebook, and is quick causing Facebook stocks to plummet. People are fed up with how much is controlled for them, with how much private companies are able to meddle in their lives and even how our country will be run. It does pose an interesting question about the influence of technology because as technology continues to advance, how will our freedoms, our rights, our voices be affected.
This is a very interesting topic (so interesting, in fact, that it ended up as my blog's topic too, albeit from a slightly different angle). I agree that this kind of data gathering, and the fact that Facebook has done nothing about it, is rather terrifying. As well, it's very good that you brought attention to the campaign, as it is now tempting me to follow suit (partially to save me time, partially out of protest).
ReplyDeleteI have heard about social media apps posing threats to our online privacy and security, but this blog still shocked me. It is rather scary to see how much information these sites can gain without our knowledge, and it is even scarier that they are selling it out to 3rd party companies. I personally never share much online, simply because I don't want to, but I will think twice about how much I do put into websites such as this one in the future.
ReplyDeleteInteresting discussion of the topic. However, to play the opposing viewpoint here, it is clearly stated in Facebooks EULA that user data may be used for marketing purposes. While it is true that most people do not read the EULA at all, but it is there, and most users have explicitly agreed to it (at least legally). Therefore, what facebook is doing is actually not illegal.
ReplyDeleteInteresting blog post, Kaitlyn, since I use Facebook frequently and was not aware of all the issues that the company is going through at this point. Obviously, Fecebook, being the social media giant that they are, will probably find a way to overcome this slight down tick in their stocks and figure out a way to prove to the public that they don't need to worry about their personal information on Facebook. Privacy is a tricky issue because everyone has different viewpoints and different levels of tolerance before they think that someone or some company crossed the line. It should be interesting to see if Facebook does anything in response to this growing problem.
ReplyDeleteI love how in today's society people are able to force change. Seeing people delete their Facebook pages in response to something they disagree with is really quite impressive. I hope that people will continue to do this until Facebook changes their platform. Great Blog!
ReplyDeleteIt seems like Facebook and similar companies are only ever becoming more powerful, so it's good to see some of their shadier practices come to light. It's scary, what they can do with this information; even if you don't have a Facebook account, they probably still have a profile of you based on what your friends and family post.
ReplyDeleteScandals such that is are not only extremely terrifying but make me glad to not have a Facebook account. I think this is where the terms of agreements become so important considering most people just blinding agree to terms they rather not take the time to get acquainted with. It will be interesting to see what happens with this app and whether not it survive this scandal.
ReplyDelete