Since the news of Facebook’s big data breach broke, there have been a lot of questions about the future of the social media giant–and about whether users should delete the app. The controversy has been complex and confusing (some congressional lawmakers don’t even seem to understand it), so before you trash your account (or not), bring yourself up to date with what the Facebook issue really is–and how we got here.
In February 2004, Mark Zuckerberg first launched Facebook (then called “TheFacebook”) from his dorm room at Harvard. This detail is important not only because it’s an interesting tidbit, but because it’s a fact that Zuckerberg frequently cites. His argument is that he was “just a college kid” when he started the website and had no way of knowing how huge it would get–although some critics say that this only proves that Zuckerberg is too young and immature to run such a major company.
The news feed was introduced in September of 2006. Before this, Facebook was a place to store photos and information and individually view friends’ profiles. The news feed changed that by allowing users to see friends’ every move–likes, relationship statuses, posts–as the main page of the app. Although to many of us it is hard to remember when Facebook wasn’t this way, lots users saw it as a huge invasion of privacy at the time. By this point, Facebook had also expanded dramatically: it was originally only available to students, but had by this time become available to anyone over 13 with a valid email address.
Beacon, an ad program used to track users’ purchasing behaviors on outside websites to target their ads, came under public criticism in 2007. The service partnered with other websites who sent data about user behavior that would then wind up on their news feeds. Beacon was shut down 2009 due to much controversy and a class action lawsuit, as the program could not be blocked and did not require user consent.
Some argue that Beacon was effectively replaced by Facebook Connect, also known as Log in With Facebook, in 2008. This allowed third party apps to connect with Facebook, allowing users to sign up for other services without creating a seperate account–their Facebook credentials are all they need. Despite the ease of this service, all these third-party services gain access users’ Facebook profile information.
In 2012 and 2014, respectively, Facebook acquired Instagram and WhatsApp, in addition to a variety of other services. This raised questions for some about whether Facebook was (and still is!) a monopoly in the social media industry.
2014 is the year Cambridge Analytica enters the scene. Scholars at Cambridge University in England developed an app called “This is Your Digital Life.” Users could voluntarily download the app, which was promoted as an academic survey to be used for research. What these users didn’t know, however, was that each of their friends also had their data collected, without their consent. The data was then provided to the political consulting firm Cambridge Analytica. Currently, it is estimated that up to 87 million users were affected.
Facebook found out about the data collection in 2015 and reportedly requested that the data be deleted. Cambridge Analytica, however, retained the information despite Facebook’s request. The value of this information in ad targeting and political persuasion is still up for debate, but the fact remains that personal profiles were developed for scores of unsuspecting users, raising major questions about the security of data placed online.
Throughout the 2016 election, Facebook was a landmine of foreign interference and fake news. It was later discovered that multiple entities, including the Russian government, Cambridge Analytica, and others, used Facebook to spread political propaganda and fake news in hopes to influence the presidential race.
Now, in 2018, the Cambridge Analytica scandal has come into the public eye because the former director of research at the company, Christopher Wylie, released documents describing the misuse of data to the news media. These revelations have inspired outrage about Internet privacy, the responsibility of CEOs like Mark Zuckerberg, what the government can do to regulate such companies, and the role of users in their own privacy standards.
Zuckerberg has had mixed responses to controversies throughout the years, but has appeared to be remorseful about this latest and greatest privacy nightmare. But his April 10th-11th congressional testimony has left many people with a foggier picture of what’s next for social media. The big question: what exactly is Facebook? Is it a social platform? A news site? A monopoly? A media company, a financial institution? Until these questions can be fully answered, it’s hard to know how to move forward to protect users.
So, should you delete Facebook? If you want to stop your personal data from becoming accessible on the Internet, you’re probably too late (you can find out if Cambridge Analytica accessed your information from this page on your Facebook profile). But if you want to put pressure on big data companies to keep your information private in the future, ditching your account might not be such a bad idea.