People
26/03/2018

Surveys Show Declining Trust Of People On Facebook Over Personal Data Security




Even as advertisements in the name of Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg saying sorry for the data misuse incident filled newspapers in the United Kingdom, an survey that was released on Sunday has revealed that the degree of confidence and trust that users have on Facebook is doubtful at least in the United States and Germany.
 
According to a Reuters/Ipsos poll that was released on Sunday, less than half of the Americans were of the opinion that Facebook could be trusted to voluntarily follow U.S. privacy laws. In another survey that was conducted by the largest-selling Sunday paper in Germany - Bild am Sonntag, and released on Sunday, claimed that about 60 per cent of Germans were of the opinion that democracy is be negatively impacted by the likes of Facebook and other social media platforms.
 
Advertisement were placed by Zuckerberg in newspapers that included the Observer in Britain and the New York Times, Washington Post and Wall Street Journal where he personally apologized for “a breach of trust” by the platform in relation to the Cambridge Analytica incident.
 
“We have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can’t, we don’t deserve it,” said the advertisement. The advertisements were printed in plain text on a white background nad had a very small logo of Facebook.
 
Facebook is attempting to do a face saving act following severe criticisms against it so that it is able to maintain its user base and therefore the flow of advertisements and advertisers and investor The largest social media platform in the world is facing close scrutiny of its privacy policies and actions both in the U.S. and the U.K.
 
Last week there were allegations against Facebook that it did nothing to prevent the use of personal data of approximately 50 million American by British consultancy Cambridge Analytica which allegedly had misused the data during the 2016 Presidential elections in the U.S. The firm was appointed to assist President Donald Trump during the campaign.
 
Facebook had not been “fully forthcoming” in relation to the manner in which Cambridge Analytica had made use of data from Facebook, said U.S. Senator Mark Warner in an interview on NBC’s Meet the Press” on Sunday.
 
Warner said that internet companies like Facebook had been not completely ready to confront “the dark underbelly of social media” and the manner in which it could be manipulated.
 
 
Acknowledgement of the fact that an app created by a university researcher had “leaked Facebook data of millions of people in 2014”, was ultimately made by Zuckerberg.
 
“This was a breach of trust, and I’m sorry we didn’t do more at the time,” Zuckerberg said, and he reiterated the apology that he had earlier made during a television interview.
 
While the hashtag #DeleteFacebook gained traction online, there was a 14 per cent fall in shares of Facebook last week.
 
(Source:www.reuters.com)

Christopher J. Mitchell
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