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Privacy Regulations for Social Media If you have followed the news over the past couple of days, you may have seen something about the Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg answering questions from Congress. While the commentary was back and forth and some issues were brought up and discussed that should be drawn attention to. Some of issues were horrifying and should scare those of us who use Facebook and the apps that are associated with the platform. Privacy for Sale While the scandal around the Cambridge Analytica (@CamAnalytica) and the use of personal data of some of the 187 Million Facebook users continues to brew and stir. The goal of this questioning from Congress has been to determine how Facebook makes money off your personal data and what they are doing to protect it. As it turns out, not much and Mr. Zuckerberg has continually deferred the questioning and has been evasive to say the least. What has come to light though is that the company continues to fail in protecting your personal data in order to make a buck by whatever company wants to send you advertisements. User Controls As Mr. Zuckerberg pointed out during the hearings, you have control over your data. However, you don’t have control over who other than Facebook is going to get access that data. While Facebook controls the data technically, that data is for sale to the highest bidder for their use. While Mr. Zuckerberg hid behind his user agreement and the myriad of pages that it contains for the explanation of the policy. (How many have actually read the agreement and understood all the legal jargon?) Some of the explanations that have been given make me shake my head and ask if they really are doing what they have said they would. Unfortunately, that has proved to be lackluster at best, as they have continued to fail in the implementation of the controls they have said that they would. Users of Facebook have control to either join the application or not, but giving permission to the company to share your data how they see fit and are paid for doing it. Self-regulation Not Working While Facebook has been given an opportunity to self-regulate, the company has continued to fail at doing it. Mr. Zuckerberg hid behind his company’s processes and policies, with the only times the company has taken action has been when a member of Congress has to step in and call the staff at the company in order to get things done. This was pointed out numerous times during the hearings, both with various Senators and Congressmen. The company has continually found themselves in hot water over their practices and their continued violations of current regulations. No matter how you look at it, Facebook has let the public down. They were supposed to have the controls put in place prior to the latest issue with Cambridge Analytica and they never followed up to make sure that they followed through with the specific requirements. This was a huge failure on Facebook’s part. Social Media Politics
One of the issues that was brought up in the hearings as well was the disregard for view of conservatives and the disproportionate abuse that was waged against them during the election of 2016 and that continues today. While Mr. Zuckerberg acknowledged his company failed in this area, it was pointed out that the lack of diversity within the staff that he employs may be at fault. That is not the only reason; it was also the lack of political diversity as well. Facebook has been known as a bastion of liberal ideas and goals, as Mr. Zuckerberg was an avid supporter of President Obama and took an active role in helping to promote the election of Mrs. Clinton in the last presidential election. And has continually voiced his opposition to the views and goals of President Trump and his administration. With recent admissions by the company, they now classify all of their users based on their political leanings and the content that they post or follow. Whether you like it or not, your political ideas and leanings are up for sale as well. With this data, you are not able to delete, and you have no way to correct or restrict that access to. This is an area that I believe the company will struggle with as they try to comply with the promises that they have now made to the American people, and the world. Social Media Regulations From the both of the hearings that have been held this week you can see the writing on the wall, so to speak. Regulations are going to be coming to the tech industry and to those social media platforms that collect and use your personal data in order to monetize their services. This not just a Facebook issue, this is also a Twitter, LinkedIn, and an Instagram issue. All of these various platforms store or use your data in a way that makes the company money off your information. Regulations Needed While social media continues to be an area that needs to be addressed with its use and the monetizing of their users data. It is important that all companies take note here, that if you use, store, or sale the access to your users information, you need to put in controls and means to manage that data. Even if the company stores data and gets users permission in order to do it. The user still retains ownership of it and should have control over how that data is used. This is where Facebook continues to fall short. It is difficult to control and delete this information for a user. They may retain some of that data even after you delete it (images on backup systems) and they may continue to sell the access to this data to advertisers. Not to mention the use of metadata that is retained by other applications as well. Solutions Needed Facebook has 1/3rd of the planet’s population as members of its services, and they continue to grow. Some of the solutions that might help would be the following:
Summary While nobody really likes regulations since they have the ability to stifle creativity and add onerous controls that companies will have to comply with. The fact is, we need protections put into place to protect our personal data. The companies that have this information have continued to prove that they are either unwilling or unable to take the steps they need to protect it. It will need to be a regulatory law that is passed that will finally make companies do the right thing.
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