Yes, fuck Cambridge Analytica, and fuck the Mercers. But what happened was not a hack or a breach or theft. What happened was someone shared data they legally got from Facebook with someone who wasn't entitled (according to Facebook's Terms Of Service or whatever) to have it.
That's it. It was a breach of contract.
Does that seems insufficiently dramatic to account for the fact that CA got detailed personal information about 50,000,000 people without their consent and then used it to target them for political messaging? Yes!
But the problem is that Facebook has that data and sells that data. Of course people are going to use the data. It's useful, and valuable. That's why people pay for it. That's why FB gathers it in the first place! And it happens all the time.
Maybe people should quit FB? Seems unlikely. Maybe they should stop taking "What Kind Of Dog Are You?" quizzes? Tighten their security settings?
And, if you think FB's data collection is terrible, you should take a look at what the people who connect you to Facebook do with your info.
It happens all the time, CA happened to get caught but they are the tip of the iceberg. The sheer arrogance of them is what gets me though, they really thought they were untouchable. FB have handled this very badly and I doubt Zuck will be making an appearance in front of British MPs (he has a week to respond.)
We’re living in an episode of Black Mirror.
I know one or two people threatening to quit FB but not Instagram, Snapchat or WhatsApp of course. Plus the irony of using one social media platform to encourage people to leave another social media platform made me laugh. Like Twitter is any better. In my experience Twitter is far more dangerous than FB.
I know I am a product. I get access to all these “services” and they get my data in return. But this is starting to take the piss and I think the consequences for society as a whole are very worrying. The Internet is becoming a very nasty fucking place indeed. The overt stuff is bad enough but this subtle propaganda is gold to the psychos in charge of the world.
I used to be so optimistic about the future. Can we rewind to 1999 and just stop there?