Mark Zuckerberg and his company, Facebook, are currently facing their biggest problem yet: A data-privacy crisis that has angered users, led panicked investors to sell all their stock and has drawn intense scrutiny from lawmakers and regulators worldwide.
The public relations “dislike” comes amid reports that Cambridge Analytica, a British data analytics firm, illicitly used the data of 50 million Facebook users without the users’ knowledge or consent to inform voter-targeting strategies for Donald Trump’s presidential campaign. This was possible because of Facebook’s (at the time) pretty lax privacy protocols.
The regulatory aftershocks to this scandal will shake more than just Facebook, reports Variety in a sobering cover story this week.
“Hundreds of billions of dollars [in digital ad spending] are at stake over the next several years over this issue,” Daniel Ives, chief strategy officer and head of technology research at GBH Insights, told the industry trade.
Facebook needs to prove that it is committed to its users, and to regaining their trust. But there is no going back. New rules for online data are coming, and among the chorus of calls for regulations curtailing the use of personal data, Silicon Valley is also making sure everyone knows they are supportive.
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