Team@AlexGPR.com +1 816-945-2477

The Future of Facebook: What You Can Do

By Alex Greenwood

It has come to light that Facebook data from 50 million users were harvested for propaganda in the 2016 election. This should trouble anyone, no matter which side they were on during the election, for a number of reasons. I don’t know about you, but when I joined Facebook, I don’t recall signing up for that. More on that in a minute.

What we are looking at here, however, is whether you wish to continue to allow Facebook to access your data to sell to companies for their marketing use.

(Catch my interview on KCTV about this very topic here!)

What Happened?

First, it’s useful to explain just what happened, as this excellent article from Vox (excerpted below) does:

And according to a former Cambridge Analytica employee, the firm got it through researcher Aleksandr Kogan, a Russian American who worked at the University of Cambridge.

Kogan built a Facebook app that was a quiz.

It not only collected data from people who took the quiz…it exposed a loophole in Facebook API that allowed it to collect data from the Facebook friends of the quiz takers as well. (Emphasis mine)

…Facebook prohibited the selling of data collected with this method, but Cambridge Analytica sold the data anyway.

The upshot? Facebook raw data from 50 million users was accessed and used to generate content that may very well have changed the course of an American election. (And don’t use those quizzes on Facebook).

Facebook founder Mark Zuckerburg said in response:

 “I’ve been working to understand exactly what happened and how to make sure this doesn’t happen again. The good news is that the most important actions to prevent this from happening again today we have already taken years ago. But we also made mistakes, there’s more to do, and we need to step up and do it.”

That’s great, but forgive me if I don’t trust Mark on that one.

As the old maxim states,

“If you’re not paying for something, you’re not the customer. You’re the product being sold.”

The trade-off for having a place to catch up with old friends, share photos, and play games are Facebook gets access to everything. Just look at the terms of service with Facebook.

Leaving Facebook

Okay, so where does that leave us?

Some are bailing on Facebook altogether. I’m certainly thinking about it–and it seems some Millenials are, too. But do you have to?

So maybe leaving altogether isn’t optimal. I work with social media as a strategist, so I have to stay on it. However, I am minimizing my exposure in a variety of ways, including:

  1. Checking my privacy settings. I share only with a close circle of friends. In theory, this limits how much of my information is available by apps mining data. This is not foolproof, but it helps. This article has step-by-step instructions.
  2. Remove apps. Tedious, but do it! Here’s how.
  3. Delete anything you don’t want shared.
  4. Be thoughtful of what you post. Remember, the internet is forever, and Facebook is a spot where many people vent their spleen (yeah, yeah, me included). From now on, vow to keep calm, civil and never, ever post anything you wouldn’t mind seeing broadcast on TV.

The Future of Facebook

So what happens to Facebook?

The short answer: I don’t know.

I do know that as consumers, we can starve the beast by adjusting our privacy settings and simply using it less. Facebook has done much good in the world, but like any tool, it has strong potential for abuse. I do think this is a watershed moment for most users, and they are not happy with Facebook. I know I’m not.

Facebook’s response has been underwhelming thus far, which adds fuel to the fires of deletion. Ultimately, whether users feel they were played for suckers or not will determine their future usage of Facebook. As for me, I recognize the power of Facebook as a business and personal communication tool. However, I have taken a step back from it and used it less the past few months, and I haven’t missed it too much. Instead, I’ve enjoyed interacting with people in the “real” more.

Another upside? I haven’t had one person ask me to play Farmville or take a now-sinister looking “Which Superhero Are You” quiz in person yet. (Full disclosure, I’m this guy.)

 

Please follow and like us:
LinkedIn
Share
Instagram
Twitter
Follow by Email
RSS
YouTube
Pinterest
Mastodon
error

Enjoy this blog? Please spread the word :)