Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted on Wednesday that his company has made mistakes in a data leak that caused grave concern about user privacy, possibly abused for political purposes.
Yet Adjunct Professor Amy Zalman of Georgetown University believes the impact of the data leak on the political campaigns is hard to tell.
Zuckerberg vows to step up to fix problems as Facebook, the social media giant, fights over a growing scandal over the hijacking personal data from 50 million of its users.
The Facebook loss came after US and British media reported that the data of more than 50 million Facebook users was inappropriately used by a British data analysis company, Cambridge Analytica, in activities allegedly connected with US President Donald Trump during his 2016 campaign.
“Because they use our data for advertising, right? It’s what they do, and how they make their money,” noted Amy Zalman in analysing the situation, Adjunct Professor of Georgetown University and Principal of Strategic Narrative Institute in Washington DC, USA.
She does not think that technology companies like Facebook will reform without some really clear incentives that come either from Washington or from citizens, from popular pressure.
Trump’s campaign reportedly used the firm’s data during the primaries but not during the general election, and Federal Election Commission numbers showed the firm collected $5.9 million in 2016 from Trump’s campaign, California-based The Mercury News daily reported Monday.
The Associated Press (AP) quoted Facebook as saying last week that Cambridge Analytica received user data from a Facebook app years ago that purported to be a psychological research tool, though the firm wasn’t authorised to have that information.
Amy Zalman argued that the impact may be powerful in theories. It was hard to tell how much impact the data leak may have on the political campaigns, given the complexity of human behavior.
“And that can be powerful but human behavior is a complicated thing. We don’t fully understand it,” commented Amy Zalman.
Facebook admitted that an estimated 270 000 people had downloaded the app and shared their personal details with it.
