Since the past one week, we have been hearing various reports on the Facebook data breach issue. In fact, the Indian Government has shot off notices to both Facebook and Cambridge Analytica response on the data breach issue and is keen on deciding the action to be taken once their responses arrive.
But this is insane. Facebook is the world’s social media network and it has been growing ever since its inception. People trust their Facebook accounts like their bank accounts.
How could such a breach of privacy happen? How could Facebook development team be so irresponsible? What is the probability that any such incident will not be repeated in the future?
These questions are repeatedly going on in the minds of people who are active Facebook users. While signing up on Facebook, they never think about any breach of data or loss of confidentiality of their profiles.
Today, we all believe that it is the responsibility of the Facebook team to protect our data and if they can’t that don’t deserve to serve us either.
They need to work on fixing this and to ensure that this will not be repeated in the future. They need to come up with something really great in order to rebuild the toxic decline in trust which this incident and all other recent data lapses have endangered.
It’s about 2.2 billion people who use Facebook every day and a tighter data policy needs to come from Facebook. This can at no point be tolerated by anyone.
The major effect of this data breach issue, which was due to an app fetching user’s data, forced so many celebrities to quit using Facebook.
The fear of 50 million profiles being harvested for Cambridge Analytica in the major data breach, and #deletefacebook campaign on Twitter, they did so.
Celebs and influencers including Brian Acton, Will Ferrell, Playboy, Jim Carrey, Farhan Akhtar, and Elon Musk, deleted their Facebook accounts. Well, Facebook is too big to be embroiled in a scandal and must consider it as a great warning.
Elon Musk jumped on the #DeleteFacebook bandwagon, removing the SpaceX and Tesla Facebook pages #tictocnews https://t.co/zdVFq6kZKq pic.twitter.com/MzS2FCqEmW
— Bloomberg Originals (@bbgoriginals) March 30, 2018
Following these names, many people began declaring on Facebook that they are going to break up with it. And it wasn’t a tiny group of people. It was the largest exodus Facebook has ever faced. People no longer trust Facebook to begin with.
Amidst the scandal and call for Mark Zuckerberg to testify before the people, we wonder how badly Facebook could be devalued by this. It’s dominant position in the social media niche, it’s relation to everybody’s daily life, and the sheer amount of money it makes doesn’t mean that it is untouchable by losses.
Account to reports, Facebook has already seen more than $60 billion wiped off its valuation over fears that the revelations have caused. It has dragged down the stock prices of all tech giants significantly.
This implies that even other companies are soon going to go on Facebook. Who would tolerate devaluation due to something that they haven’t done?
Besides this, the regulatory authorities are not going to stay silent. Long back, in the 1990s, US antitrust regulators did place Microsoft’s Windows monopoly in cross chairs. The fight forced Microsoft to curb aggressive practices in new markets. In 2002, it also saw its rivals Google and Apple coming up and scaling to the world.
Microsoft was hurt. It is time for Facebook now. The day is not far when people will be like what is Facebook? The regulatory authorities are not going to be nicer this time as well. There even might be a restriction that Facebook cannot acquire other companies like Instagram and WhatsApp.
Having the largest and most powerful advertising network on Facebook, the data breach sins will definitely impact the control of advertising on social media. People found Facebook synonymous with the internet but as the advertising business is aggressively going on, more accounts are going to get closed.
The slow erosion of user base awaited regulations by respective National Governments and running away from top brands from Facebook is hinting the dark years of Facebook are coming.
Just as Microsoft lost its control over the smartphone niche and Yahoo lost is control to Google, Facebook will also lose it to someone. The audiences, which comprise of you and me, are always in search of veered options. We keep switching over from platform to platform as it adds variety to life.
With 2.2 billion monthly active users, there has never been an internet company like Facebook. Our of 3.8 billion internet users, 2.2 billion are already on Facebook. Majority of people use Facebook and majority can sweep it too. It’s the people who make Facebook and it’s the people who will ruin it.
This is the beginning of an end because as a social media marketing company we see the loss in the decline in the number of users of Facebook. Losing trust is taking Facebook towards its end.
After celebs and influencers, it was time for big advertisers on Facebook, who weren’t getting conversions as before to come to light.
Leading the list is Mozilla, which announced that it will no longer advertise on Facebook until it sees a proof that the social media giant has tightened data privacy controls.
We champion platforms and technologies that are good for the web *and* for people. We stand up for transparency & user control because they make the web healthier for us all.
That’s why we’re taking a break from Facebook.
More here: https://t.co/ofeyIwO1FN
— Mozilla (@mozilla) March 22, 2018
It happens to be a big fallout as the political data mining site has forced brands to quit Facebook advertising. Besides the breach of data, the fact that a Facebook page post will not show up in people’s news feed until it is a paid advert has also made the brands upset.
Both these factors account for the disinterest that big brands now have in advertising on Facebook. Here is the second loss that waits for Facebook. Just as IBM lost its monopoly, other social media platforms can quickly take advantage of this shortcoming.
While so much is going on, there is no point assuming that nobody will be thinking about the future of their Facebook accounts. People are already planning to go ahead and to delete their accounts.
It is pretty visible that Facebook collects a large amount of user data shared by the user with the company. Not just their personal details, their location, their behavior and actions on Facebook also get tracked.
The likes, comments, and shares send information to Facebook about your interests. Facebook prioritizes the posts in their news feed based on this data only. The entire Facebook advertising business is based on collected data only.
Previous attacks on Facebook were all illegal hacks but this is a legal organization using individual’s data without their consent. This should prick to question yourself the level of data you can share and question whatever you see on social media.
Talking about it practically, it would take some time to comment on this. If Facebook’s user base drops considerably, the advertisers or marketers lose their audience base, for which they pay Facebook. This means the cost of ads run on Facebook will go high, in contrast to the low investment expectations of the marketers.
Secondly, only posts that are boosted on Facebook will appear in the news feed of users, irrespective of the fact whether they have liked the page or not. Any pots from a page that they have liked may or may not appear in their news feed depending upon their interest. This makes the social media marketing on Facebook tougher.
Conclusion
The #DeleteFacebook campaign is going to impact Facebook advertising significantly. Until people are sure that their confidential information is not being misused for targeting them n events like elections, they are not turning to be Facebook active users. In fact, they don’t give a damn.
Facebook might continue to be the largest social media platform, but its dominance in the world of social media marketing will sharply decline. The theft and threat that this incident has brought forth, with a legal organization doing illegal work, the people are more than conscious as to how will they identify if their information is not being misused.
It needs some legal action, which will bind Facebook and others to seek some sort of permission from the users before using their information or restrict them to use only selected information of the user for free.
We don’t say that social media is a bad thing. In fact, it is a very helpful medium when to comes to making connections, sharing information and distributing updates. But, the point lies in the excess of things that it takes. When the drawbacks of social media outweigh the benefits of it, we have to use it consciously.
It is time that social media marketers come together and encourage Facebook to mend its flaws, improvise the algorithms and strengthen the privacy issues associated with the platform. It is high time that they review their money making policies and focus on retaining their major asset, the user base.
What Is YouTube Studio? How To Use It? - April 12, 2024
Advantages and Disadvantages of Social Media For Your Businesses - April 6, 2024
