Source: https://www.publicdomainpictures.net/en/view-image.php?image=240457&picture=facebook
The world just shocked by the leaked information about Cambridge Analytica. They used 50 million Facebook user data as a tool for US political agenda, without their consent. Facebook itself suffered from the loss 8% in market value last week.
However, this post isn’t about political agenda but how the data was misused. The controversy began with scholars sold their research data to Cambridge Analytica. The scholar initially used them for academic purpose, but turn up used as a tool for misguiding people. Now, we might be worried about the safety of our personal data putted into our social network.
This trust issue will remain as our focus in making the social application. Is it possible to restrict the use of data only in university and not monetizing them? It might be sound idealistic but let’s look deeper into other case.
Back in 2012, SourceForge, one of the notable software hosting, was going down because of the advertising. Through the change of management, SourceForge made themselves vulnerable from clickbait advertising and malware software. Suddenly the whole website become a soft spot for marketers and the customer hate them. In the end, they lost in the competition.
The main question that should be asked is: Is the business making everything bad?
No, the main problem lies on the aim of the project. If they gradually become a tool for generating profit, then perhaps, they might suffer terrible end. This happened because they betray users’ trust of their personal data. It is our duty as social network builder to protect them. It might be tempting to sell the data to other parties for the sake of maintaining the site. However we realize that the consequences are hard. Moreover, this led another issue for business to monetize their site/application carefully.
References:
[1] Langone, A. (2018) Facebook Cambridge Analytica Controversy Could Be Big Trouble for the Social Network. Here’s What to Know. Available at: http://time.com/5205314/facebook-cambridge-analytica-breach/ (Accessed: 23 March 2018)
[2] Finley, K. (2015) The Problem with Putting All the World’s Code in GitHub. Available at: https://www.wired.com/2015/06/problem-putting-worlds-code-github/ (Accessed: 23 March 2018)
[3] Wallen, J. (2015) It’s Time to Go Away, Sourceforge. Available at: https://www.techrepublic.com/article/its-time-to-go-away-sourceforge/ (Accessed: 23 March 2018)