Last year, Arjen Lubach (a Dutch TV-host) showed the dangers of all data we ignorantly share on Facebook. In this broadcast of his late night show ‘Zondag met Lubach’, he demonstrated some examples of things that people are not aware of when they use Facebook (NOS.nl, 2018). His explanation of the way Facebook uses personal data to create personalized content made thousands of Dutch people delete his or her Facebook-account. Although I think Facebook is too valuable for me to delete it for privacy reasons, his broadcast definitely changed the way I think about sharing things on Facebook.
My increased attention for privacy innovations and developments made me read an article about a new privacy tool Facebook has included in its interface. In general, Facebook-users are aware of the way the earlier mentioned personalized content is created. Still, the majority of users is surprised by the fact that also third-party companies get access to private information (Condliffe, 2019). To enable people to see what information is shared with which companies, Facebook recently introduced ‘Off-Facebook Activity’. This tool mainly focuses on the information people share with other applications or websites, using a ‘Login with Facebook’. By doing this, people allow applications to use personal information, even when they are not using Facebook. This is something, most of the Facebook-users do not know (Isaac, 2019). The new tools shows insight in which data is shared, and enables users to switch on or off specified information. This results in a more secure feeling for users, and results in an increasing feeling of security.
In my opinion, the main reason for Facebook to finally come up with a tool like this is the increasing pressure on online companies. In 2018, Facebook experienced, for the first time in its existence, a reduction in the number of users (Jagannathan, 2019). As the company realized that privacy issues are one of the main factors that lead to this trend, the company felt like it had to come up with a solution for people’s doubts.
Although I think the Off-Facebook Activity tool is revolutionizing the way personal data is shared, because it enables people to keep tracking their personal information, it still can not be seen as the solution for the major problem of data insecurity. Even though it is the first tool to let people actively have insight in their information, there still is too much uncertainty concerning private data. However, I am hoping that other companies will follow the example of Facebook, so that everyone’s online security will improve, and Arjen Lubach’s call to make us all delete our Facebook accounts will end up to be redundant.
References:
Condliffe, J. (2019, August 23). The Week in Tech: Facebook’s First Step Toward Treating Our Data Better. New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/23/technology/big-tech-data.html
Isaac, M. (2019, August 20). Facebook’s New Tool Lets You See Which Apps and Websites Tracked You. New York Times. Retrieved from: https://www.nytimes.com/2019/08/20/technology/facebook-tool-privacy-apps-websites.html?module=inline
Jagannathan, M. (2019, March 7). Why did Facebook lose an estimated 15 million users in the past two years? Marketwatch. Retrieved from: https://www.marketwatch.com/story/why-did-facebook-lose-an-estimated-15-million-users-in-the-past-two-years-2019-03-07
NOS.nl. (2018, April 10). Delete Facebook-oproep van Arjen Lubach gaat internationaal. NOS.nl. Retrieved from: https://nos.nl/artikel/2226575-delete-facebook-oproep-van-arjen-lubach-gaat-internationaal.html
It’s encouraging to see that Facebook is playing its part toward increasing consumers’ control over their privacy. Personally, I think the GDPR was the startingpoint for business to take privacy seriously. Partially because privacy became a hotter topic among consumers, with as you indicated people leaving the platform because of privacy reasons, but also because of the fines several large companies have incurred by being GDPR non-compliant.
I do think however that consumers care less about privacy than they say. Therefore I would not say that Facebook’s user base is slinking as a result of customer privacy concerns. Facebook is just not ‘in’ anymore, which I believe caused more people to leave than privacy concerns. Interestingly, the source by Jagannathan you used says there is a correlation between people looking for happiness tips and happiness quotes, and deleting Facebook. This would entail that people are not leaving Facebook for privacy reasons or because it is not trendy anymore, but because they believe it stands in the way of their happiness.
Either way, it is comforting to see that Facebook is taking steps toward customer privacy. Still, as selling personal information is Facebook’s main business model we have to wonder whether Facebook is truly increasing customer privacy control.