Facebook's Big Mistake

Facebook has been a major social media platform in the news lately after information surfaced regarding the conduct of Facebook and it's use of users information and data. The central problem Facebook is fighting is a privacy scandal. Facebook improperly shared data with Cambridge Analytica which is a political consulting firm and worked on President Trump's campaign. An article by the Wall Street Journal claims data from 87 million Facebook users was improperly shared. Mr.  Zuckerburg, the CEO of Facebook, will give a prepared testimony on Capitol Hill regarding the actions of Facebook during the Cambridge Analytica scandal. The sharing of user information with Cambridge Analytica is not the only offense against Facebook, such as aiding in the spread of disinformation, and violations of a consent order with the Federal Trade Commission.

It has been established that Facebook will sell user data for research and educational purposes but in this situation there is more to the story. The way this works is a company who does research, in this case GSR, develops an app that pulls user data from Facebook. The data was then sold to Cambridge Analytica which was against an agreement signed with Facebook. The place where Facebook gets in trouble is when they heard Cambridge Analytica had data they were not supposed to have, Facebook should have made certain all of the user data was deleted from Cambridge Analytica's possession. Facebook also allowed the app to take data from the friends of the person who used the app without their consent. According to an article by CBS News, Facebook policies have changed where apps are no longer allowed to take data from the friends of the user, however the GSR app was still able to collect the data because it was grandfathered into the older policies.

Another reason this is such a hot topic is because Cambridge Analytica has ties to Russia, who meddled in the 2016 election. The mass amounts of data collected can be used to predict human actions according the news segment in the article by CBS News.

In light of all of the charges against Facebook, Facebook is creating a commission to analyze the effects of social media on elections. An article by NBC News says the "researchers will have access to Facebook's resources." The idea is to have unbiased data on how social media can affect the outcome of elections. The findings on any of these studies will not have an impact on the 2016 presidential election, but it will be looking into future elections.

The amount of data social media sites can gather on people is rather scary, it can be used for good things such as research but it also presents harmful outcomes if it gets into the hands of the wrong people. Due to how new social media is in the world I think social media companies should take an extra look into the ways they are going to safeguard the personal data of individuals. The users of social media also have a responsibility to understand what they are signing up for instead of just checking the box saying you agree to the terms and conditions. Information is gathered on more than just the things you post, it collects data on the things you like and other things you click on while using the platform. Facebook has a tough road ahead, but hopefully there will be lessons learned by Facebook and all of the other social media platforms to safeguard user's privacy.