This is yet another example of Facebook’s failure to transparently disclose its data policies to its customers. Hello Readers!
This time, according to Bloomberg news, it has to do with outsourcing to “hundreds” of outside contractors transcribing its “Messenger Chats” into usable data (that is…for them to sell/mine or whatever their lack of transparency data policy allows them to do). Were you aware of this policy? Facebook says it doesn’t listen to your conversations, rather they hire hundreds of outside contractors to do this for them. Well isn’t that really the same thing? Of course it is. Facebook’s lack of transparency and abuse of client’s data is abysmal and disingenuous to say the least. That said, I have questions regarding these outside contractors hired by Facebook to do their dirty work, namely:
Who are these outside contractors?
What are their data policies?
What do they do with your data once service is rendered for Facebook?
Where are they located?
Who is monitoring these contractors?
How do they safeguard your data?
Do they adhere to their data policies?
How do you know? How is this verified?
Who monitors their data data retention policies…in other words, who is holding them accountable for YOUR private data?
Certainly not Facebook!
Once again, Facebook has proven that they can’t be trusted with the privacy of their client’s data. This is evidenced by their lack of transparency and lack of full disclosure to their clients in their data policies. Resulting in yet another reason for customers to close accounts at Facebook and send a message to their senior management. However, I don’t believe they really care about what you or I think…they’ve haven’t so far, so why should they change their stripes now?
If you don’t agree with Facebook’s customer data policies, then take a stand and make your voice heard. If you don’t really care about how your data is used without your approval or knowledge, then continue to have your account open at Facebook where your private data can be bought/ sold/ exchanged/ shared/ and traded with hundreds of data contractors who can do the very same thing with your private data if they have similar data policies in place! You can’t say you haven’t been warned!
GMS BUSINESS CONSULTING, INC. – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services. We do NOT provide investment advice. If you are interested in learning more about our consulting services, especially our M.A.P. solution (a Master Action Plan), designed to help business professionals to strategically manage and tactically grow their business, then Contact Us… We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
A FACEBOOK FOLLOW-UP for our readers… We have posted several articles regarding Facebook and its lack of oversight and data privacy policies regarding customer data. We thought this article posted on Bloomberg as reported in the Wall Street Journal speaks to Mark Zuckerberg’s knowledge of data policies and might be of interest to you.
A Facebook Follow-up question for you: Have Americans compromised their ethics and moral values all for the sake of money? By supporting Facebook and it’s President Mark Zuckerberg it sure seems like we have. Does making excuses for Facebook and overlooking Mr. Zuckerberg’s lack of integrity, leadership and oversight reflect a change in our country’s moral compass? Are we personally compromising our integrity and moral values as a people, for the sake of the “almighty dollar”? It would certainly appear so…
Many Americans continue supporting Facebook, despite all the evidence of compromising policies and its customer data in lieu of profits. So, what does that say about us individually and as Americans? Do we value Facebook’s social conveniences and business generating capabilities at the expense of ethics, data policies, customer care, leadership and trust? Have you?
GMS BUSINESS CONSULTING, INC. – provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services. We do NOT provide investment advice! If you are interested in learning more about our consulting services, especially our M.A.P. solution (a Master Action Plan), designed to help business professionals to strategically manage and tactically grow their business, then Contact Us… We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
The Facebook saga continues… Hello everyone! It’s quite clear (in our opinion), that Facebook puts profits ahead of preserving the privacy of its customers’ data. Once an organization shares client data with any other organization, control (retaining and maintaining the privacy, security and integrity of that data) is lost…period. Facebook cannot control third-party organizations and how they use/abuse/share the data once the data leaves its organizations’ infrastructure. We’ll probably never know just how much individual personal data has been compromised by this social media giant. Here’s the latest update in a New York Times article that Facebook itself states, “Facebook has data-sharing partnerships with at least four Chinese electronics companies, including a manufacturing giant that has a close relationship with China’s government, the social media company said on Tuesday.”
Does this surprise you? It shouldn’t by now…at least it doesn’t surprise us. In fact, it appears that there has really been no leadership within the Facebook organization from the beginning to current day who seriously spearheads organizational protocols for addressing customer data privacy, security and integrity. What do you think would be happening if whistle blowers hadn’t come forward with this abuse of customer data? Do yo think Mr. Zuckerburg would have come forward with his rather pathetic excuse/public apology for NEGLECTING the privacy, integrity and safekeeping of his customers’ data? Or would they be rolling along as they have been for many years staying the course of business as usual? We understand that Facebook most likely isn’t the only social media company that treats its customers’ data with such disregard of customer data privacy in exchange for revenue. We’re sure there are others that do the same, perhaps they just haven’t been exposed…yet.
All said, it’s a lack of concern and at the least, a lax policy of safeguarding customer data privacy, as well as, perhaps taking advantage of using their Client Agreements to mask or bury the rights of what Facebook can do with customer data in the small print that is written far beyond the comprehension level of most its customers. It’s practices like these that makes you wonder what else has been done or IS being done with our data without our knowledge? The specific concern we’re expressing here isn’t so much focused on businesses using Facebook for business promotional and marketing purposes (it is important, but not the focus of this post), it has to do more with the individualpersonal users and the privacy of their data that concerns us the most. Businesses are usually quite savvy and discreet when it come to publishing information on Facebook and other social media platforms, however the general public isn’t, and that’s where the problem and abuse of data privacy is of greatest concern to us.
We fully understand that there are challenges in how we function as businesses and as individuals in this digital age of social media communication (SMC). As we all understand, SMC can be extremely powerful for business use and personal communication. It can also be very destructive if abused by companies entrusted with the privacy and security of individuals data and the companies with which they share the data. As time moves forward, and industry leaders think through and work through their business models and the responsibilities they have to their customers, and as the court rooms and congress begin to settle cases and draft legislation establishing boundaries of what are acceptable and unacceptable practices with consumer data privacy, we are hopeful and optimistic that there will be better data privacy and security laws established and business protocols put in place , as well as greater transparency and responsibility regarding the privacy of individuals data. That said, only time will tell… yet at what cost? All we can say is be careful with the data (text and media files…all data files) you upload to Facebook and other social media platforms. Do your own research into this problematic business practice of sharing your personal data with other organizations domestically and internationally without your expressed knowledge or consent, then use your own wisdom and discernment as to whether or not this is acceptable to you, and whether or not you decide to use the various social media platforms available that may exploit your personal data.
GMS BusinessConsulting– provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently. We do NOT provide investment advice. Contact Us if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P.(our 3-phase business development solution), designedto help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business. We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
Sandy Parakilas in San Francisco. ‘It has been painful watching. Because I know that they could have prevented it.’ Photograph: Robert Gumpert
Do you think your Facebook account data is stored, secured and kept private only at Facebook? Think again! This is not only a warning for Facebook users, this is a warning for all users of any social media platform or user of any other technology company’s software that we routinely and blindly grant permission and access to our personal data. If you think this is just a Facebook issue…Think again.
Good Morning Everyone! Think of all the information you post on your Facebook account or any other social media platform… You assume that the only company who stores your account data and has access to your personal data is Facebook or the platform you’re currently using, right? Wrong… Do you ever wonder who else may have access to your data other than Facebook and why? Why do they have access to it and what are they’re using it for…without your knowledge or permission? You should be concerned. We should all be concerned. This ARTICLE posted by (Paul Lewis in San Francisco – The Guardian – Tuesday, March 20, 2018) is about a former insider at Facebook who details the lack of security at the worlds most popular social media platform in the world.
We can’t adequately express our concern over data security at Facebook better than Sandy Parakilas, formerly the platform operations manager at Facebook responsible for policing data breaches by third-party software developers between 2011 and 2012. The insight that Parakilas shares with us should be of no surprise to some of us. However, the general public and the youth are most likely not aware of this issue that centers around data security and and privacy, and what breaches in these areas can result in further down the road, particularly in identity theft and abuse of our personal information. Listen to this particular interview below with Christopher Wylie formerly with Cambridge Analytica (this interview is in the article itself too):
Today’s post centers on Facebook, however it has far broader implications that we’re drawing your attention to. Daily, we download and update apps to our desktops and smartphones and post all kinds of information with a complete lack of understanding as to what we’re granting access to, and blindly granting permissioned access to second and third party organizations. All the permissions and stipulations may be well buried in the details of the user agreement policy’s “fine-print” that we all so easily “Accept” as terms and conditions for using/downloading/updating our apps.
We’re really disappointed that the legal community hasn’t put all their brain power together to create and enforce “simple”, straight-forward options that on the one hand would protect individual users data privacy rights, and at the same time provide their clients with business opportunities to sell/share/market account users data (ifgranted permission by users in clearly defined options). All that would be needed, is to REQUIRE all organizations wanting to sell/share or market their client data, to place two options before hitting the “Accept” or “Decline” options such as:
An “OPT-OUT” option should be made available for personal data to NOT be stored/shared/used by any second or third party…and WITHOUT being denied use of the app. In exchange for this option, the organization may provide a software version that has ads or they can charge a small fee to usethe app w/all the updates and features. These software options somewhat exist today with free or paid software on our smartphones. HOWEVER… the lack of data rights is NOT spelled-out clearly and upfront, yet is buried in the details of user agreements, and if you don’t “Accept” the ENTIRE user agreement, then you can’t use the software. This option would fairly address both sides of the issue.
An “Opt-In” option should be made available for those individuals who don’t mind their data being sold/mined/shared/and marketed by 2nd or 3rd parties, and in exchange, they would have software apps that don’t run ads on their smartphones/computers or that this option allows them to purchase the app for free.
Again, these options somewhat exist today. However, the one major component missing for the consumer is the ability to choose up-front, transparent “data privacyoptions” granting organizations permission as to how their personal data can be used, including storage/ sharing/ accessing/ mining/ selling/ and marketing of their personal data. So, why not standardize the Opt-In/Opt-Out permission options? Clearly stated data privacy options presented upfront and with transparency would allow consumers to better manage the privacy of their data privacy withoutdenying them usage of software simply because they don’t want their data shared. We think this is a reasonable approach. What do you think?
Once again, this breach of data privacy at Facebook is only a wake-up-call… a warning to all of us to press companies and law makers to do a better job of securing our personal data, and give us the option to either opt-in or opt-out how our data can be used.
A second and equally important issue is, standardizing “how” businesses should secure client data…and our rights to data privacy, but these topics are for another discussion at another time… Until then, we encourage you to read this Article from the Guardian to better inform yourself, then make a better decision as to how you use Facebook and other social media platforms and software going forward.
GMS Business Consulting– provides lawyers and business professionals with Accounting Services, Business Development Services, Business Optimization Services and Digital Marketing Services to help business professionals successfully organize, grow and operate their businesses more effectively and efficiently. We do NOT provide investment advice. Contact Us if you are interested in learning more about our services, and in particular about M.A.P.(our 3-phase business development solution), designedto help you strategically focus and tactically grow your business. We would welcome the opportunity to speak with you.
