Estate Living Magazine Estate Living Issue 29 May | Page 66

Before we look at the impact this could have, it is important to Lose the trust placed in a social network and there will be
understand the process of what happened. Several years ago, concerns of ever being able to win it back. After news broke of
Cambridge Analytica received user data from a Facebook quiz the Cambridge breach, Facebook lost approximately $45 billion
app that purported to encompass psychological research. The in value of its share price. Some analysts are using this as an
scary thing is that we can all probably admit to completing one opportunity to invest in the company, as the expectations are
of these quizes before. Think along the lines of ‘which Game of that opportunities like this do not come around often.
Thrones character are you?’ or ‘we can predict your age based
on what you like to eat’.
For the specific quiz in question, approximately 270 000 users
and their network of friends inadvertently shared their personal
details with the company, (who reads the fine print before
giving an app permission to using your Facebook data?). That
information was passed on to Cambridge Analytica by the
developers of the app and the rest, as they say, is history.
Abused trust
Marketing conundrum
Prior to the breach, Facebook posted revenues of more than
$10 billion in November 2017, a year-on-year increase of 47
percent. According to the company, it had over six million active
advertisers on the platform, when details of the breach were
made public. Mobile ads contributed 88 percent of revenues
due to an increase in their frequency and the price per ad.
Globally, companies have grown to rely on Facebook as a cost-
effective way of reaching highly segmented audiences. Even in
But what is the big deal? We know that the likes of Google, South Africa, brands have embraced the platform with a variety
Facebook, Amazon, Netflix, and others use our personal of campaigns that can be measured more reliably than the more
information to provide us with a more customised experience. traditional ones on television and radio. This targeted approach
We give up some degree of privacy to get access to is now under scrutiny given what happened with Cambridge
recommendations tailored to our likes and dislikes across most Analytica. The Federal Trade Commission has already launched
spheres of our lives. an investigation into the data practices of Facebook with the
However, Cambridge Analytica allegedly used the data (and
the fact that it was given to them breaks Facebook’s terms and
conditions) to “build tools that could identify the personalities
company facing significant fines if found guilty. There is also
an increasing expectation that restrictions will be placed on the
types of ads Facebook can accept and how they target users.
of American voters and influence their behaviour.” What makes Millions of Facebook users are now more conscious of the
this potentially more nefarious is that Facebook ostensibly kind of information they share on the network, and (hopefully)
knew what was going on, given the amount of data being pulled a bit more hesitant to clicking on those quizzes. As a result,
from the site, but did nothing to stop it as it was initially used for advertisers and marketers need to start thinking differently on
academic research purposes. how to leverage the platform.
Trust, and the abuse of it (whether real or perceived), is the Facebook has by no means become a dead channel but their
cornerstone of social networking today. In fact, research shows approach to data gathering and how they choose