Facebook saga sends out insecure message
Personal data breach affecting 50 million US users shows why those on social media need to take greater care or risk their rights being infringed
Facebook has enormous power to influence and manipulate that is not apparent to most of us in our interactions on the social media platform. But it is precisely because of such seemingly innocent activities that the internet behemoth is in trouble with users, governments and shareholders.
Personal data scraped without permission from 50 million of its American users was reportedly used by a private firm in an attempt to shape several elections, including Donald Trump’s successful presidential bid.
Facebook’s response to the scandal has been inadequate and outstanding questions about its business and security practices cannot be avoided.
Behind the breach is the London-based political data firm Cambridge Analytica, headed at the time by former Trump adviser Steve Bannon.
In an attempt to determine the personality of people likely to vote conservative, in 2014 it hired a researcher who paid 270,000 Facebook users to take a quiz and download an app.
The app took information from the profiles of those users and their friends; Facebook was told information was being collected for academic research, but it was instead passed on to Cambridge Analytica.