Even More Facebook Follies

Even More Facebook Follies

Even More Facebook Follies – Charles Snyder Raw #50.  So it may seem like things are starting to settle down with Facebook. After the major hysteria around the Cambridge Analytica fiasco last week.  Since then I have seen that a few government agencies are looking into it now.

However, I still don’t believe it’s time to panic.  Not yet anyway. Because basically, the uproar coming from Facebook users is mostly based on faulty conjectures and assumptions. Which you can thank the many spin-doctors in news media for most of that.

Bad (and fake) news sells!

So just in case you missed it, the big deal is that supposedly there was a data breach with Facebook. I have witnessed more than a few people talking about deleting their accounts because of it. Of course, this is all happening on Facebook, if you can see the irony in that.

Anyway, the big fuss was all about Cambridge Analytica selling access to its huge database for political marketing. Specifically, President Trump’s team used said services during the 2016 election. But maybe we should ask how did they come up with its database of Facebook users, to begin with?

Even More Facebook Follies: the truth!

First of all, Cambridge Analytica obtained the information of 300,000 some odd users that downloaded an app on Facebook. The user agreement for that app also asked people if they can have access to their list of friends. So the data obtained from the app users (and their friends-list) formed the data that was supposedly breached.

Secondly, the majority of that data obtained by the app can only be used in creating Facebook ads. Nowhere else. So the alleged ‘breach’ is rather limited in scope as to where the information can actually be used. But that doesn’t stop the news media from spinning it into yet another disaster.

Finally, I will say this. Maybe it’s time that people take the time to actually READ the end-user license agreement. Wouldn’t that be a novel concept?

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