Everyone’s so agitated about Cambridge Analytica and #deletefacebook as if they have never been warned about the stuff for over a decade or so. The easiest way to conceal information that makes you vulnerable (whatever that is for anyone) is as plain as – surprise! – not give it away.
It is quite amusing that Facebook and Mark Zuckerberg personally fell the biggest victims of the scandal. Not Cambridge Analytica, not Alex the intriguer, not the ‘I-did-nothing-wrong’ Alex. No, it’s Facebook.
Sorry guys, but Facebook’s role in this story is as pure as a drop of water. Facebook, openly and honestly, offers you a stage and a loudspeaker. It doesn’t force you into using them to reveal your secrets. It doesn’t force you into actually using them at all. It’s your choice whether to use the stage and what exactly to shout into the loudspeaker – and what not to.
This is a good point to recall the next time an unknown app asks your permission to access your contacts, mailbox, or news feed. You probably don’t share everything you write on your page with your mum, so why should you share that with some s̶u̶s̶p̶i̶c̶i̶o̶u̶s̶ ̶l̶a̶d̶s̶ ̶i̶n̶ ̶g̶r̶a̶y̶ ̶h̶o̶o̶d̶i̶e̶s̶ respectable company from Cambridge?
Picture credit: https://www.freeimages.com/photo/the-missing-delete-button-1455215