Facebook has been in the hot seat of late since the news broke about their data scandal. On March 17, the London Observer and The New York Times reported that UK-based data firm Cambridge Analytica acquired millions of Facebook users' personal information to build software that could target potential swing voters in political campaigns, including US President Donald Trump's 2016 election bid.
The reaction to the news
The news was picked up by mainstream media and hurt facebook where it counts, its share price dropping 12% and losing over 100 Billion dollars in market value in about a since.
Facebook trying to patch things up
Facebook has been reactive in preserving its hide and has informed advertisers that it will shut down Partner Categories, which allowed detailed targeting. The Partner Categories were based on information provided by Facebook marketing partners, which used data provided by the social media platform.
These categories allowed advertisers to refine their targeting based on information compiled by Facebook’s partners – such as offline demographic and behavioural information.Facebook said it is stopping the categories and will wind them down over the next six months.
It added that while it is “common industry practice”, its decision will improve user’s privacy on Facebook.
Facebook Partners was not the source of the scandal
As pointed out by Recode, Partner Categories is not what allowed Cambridge Analytica to access as many as 50 million Facebook profiles. The data mining firm was given that data from a third-party app developer in violation of Facebook’s terms of service and without user permission. Rather, data aggregators are able to supplement companies with data they may not otherwise have, allowing marketers and Facebook itself to work together to better target users.
How was Facebook Partners used?
For instance, a company like Pepsi is able to advertise on Facebook using information gleaned from Facebook profiles, the information it owns like email addresses and information it purchases from data aggregators like Experian, which gathers together purchasing history and other valuable information.
As part of Partner Categories, Facebook shares revenue with companies like Experian that help inform its data set every time a marketer purchases ad space on Facebook using that data. While this is not necessarily an inherently abusive practice, Facebook clearly views its existence as a potential threat in the waiting, and the company is taking seemingly ever preemptive measure it can right now to fend off future privacy violations and PR disasters.
Have your say?
What do you think of the Facebook data leak? Do you feel safe using facebook? Have you deleted your facebook account? Let's get chatting in the comments, id love to hear your opinions.
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I think the damage is too far gone for Facebook at this point. The ad targeting was already scary enough, let alone this new "data breach." It was the last straw for me, anyway. I just joined Steemit a couple days ago, and am getting ready to deactivate my Facebook account. I'm sure Steemit is seeing a surge of new users!! 😁
Welcome to steemit! I hope you enjoy your journey I’ve been at it for a month now and I’m loving it! Already deleted my Facebook, Instagram and Reddit apps off my phone!
Thanks!! I'm still trying to figure out what to say in my "introduction" post, but I'm liking it so far! I've deactivated Facebook and am definitely not missing it, but I'm still hanging on to Instagram for now.
Don't over think it too much, in the begining its all about getting going and interacting with people. You'll soon find your feet and what you want to blog about, its really just about sharing your thoughts and ideas with the community