media update’s Nikita Geldenhuys has the details.
Facebook has landed itself in some hot water over the misuse of its users’ data.
To understand what happened, we have to go back to 2014, when a Cambridge University academic, Aleksandr Kogan, developed a Facebook app that featured a personality quiz. The app collected the Facebook details of people who used it, as well as the details of their friends.
At the time, Facebook allowed Kogan to collect the data for academic use specifically. It also allowed apps to collect the data of friends, but “only for use in the context of Facebook itself, to encourage interaction”,
The Guardian explains.
The trouble came when the details of these people, reportedly over 50 million of them, were shared with the political consulting and voter-profiling firm, Cambridge Analytica. It reportedly used the information to help shape the 2016 election campaign of President Donald Trump.
Why is the breach making headlines now?
The fact that Cambridge Analytica used this data is not recent news.
The Guardian reported on the company’s use of the data
back in 2015.
But, articles written by
The New York Times and
London Observer on Saturday, 17 March went into the specifics: what details that were collected, how the firm analysed it and which politicians it worked for.
This has now led many people to criticise Facebook for being slow to rectify the mistake and take proper action to protect their data.
Here’s a rough timeline of how the situation unfolded, and when Facebook stepped in: Until 2014, the company did not have any policies against creating an app on Facebook that shares the data of app users and their friends with researchers.
In 2015, Facebook found out from the media that one app developer, Kogan, shared data he collected for academic use with Cambridge Analytica. This, without the consent of the users, is something that was against Facebook’s policies.
Facebook banned the app and also demanded that both Cambridge Analytica and the researcher delete all of the data they collected. Both parties agreed to do so and also provided certification that they had done this.
Back to 2018, and Facebook heard in media reports that the two parties may not have deleted the data.
Facebook is now calling the incident a breach of trust between itself and the people who share their data with it. Others are calling the breach a misuse of users’ data – and that’s why the story is now gaining more traction.
What’s happened since news of the breach made headlines?
There has been and will most likely continue to be repercussions for Facebook, especially for Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg.
First off,
according to CNN, the company’s shares fell, causing it to lose $80-billion in market value by Tuesday, 27 March.
Zuckerberg also said he would testify before the United States Congress. He has turned down an invitation to appear before members of parliament in the United Kingdom – where data breaches may also have occurred.
There are also talks of lawsuits, brands deleting their Facebook accounts, advertisers pulling their ads, and users leaving the platform.
Should users and brands be concerned?
Users have to decide how much data they are comfortable sharing. If you say ‘yes’ to apps that request you to share your details you need to be aware of the possibility that your data will be used to try and influence your decisions.
Brands need to become more aware of their responsibility to protect the data of consumers, including their Facebook fans. Marketers should also keep an eye on changes that Facebook has been making to reduce the risk of future breaches – and consider how it will affect the brands they work with.
Due to this scandal, there’s also a larger chance than before that more governments will start regulating platforms – and that could affect everyone.
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