Understand The Internet Before Targeting Zuckerberg : Facebook Data Scandal

Facebook Data Scandal has been in the news for quite sometime now and almost everyone has their own opinion for it. Many people really don’t understand the major questions i.e. what, when, where, why, who, how, etc. I just want to enlighten people by telling them how the internet functions so that they know what they are getting into when they surf the web.

Before getting into the technical stuff, I would like to clear up any doubts people have about the data scandal. Many people believe that it was facebook who leaked the data to Cambridge Analytica and it was facebook who misused your personal information to influence the US elections. Let me be perfectly clear that it was NOT facebook or Zuckerberg or anyone linked to facebook for that matter. Zuckerberg was kind enough to explain to us what actually happened in a lengthy apologetic facebook post. Here is a consolidated summary of the data scandal:

Facebook Data Scandal : Timeline

1.  Facebook was launched in 2007

   and it completely revolutionized social media. A lot of new features were introduced that allowed smaller developers to make quizzes and games for facebook users.

2. These quizzes and their developers had access to “Public” data 

   of users that “allowed” the app to have access to their data as well as the data of their friends. This was a flaw in the privacy as our friends shouldn’t be allowed to provide access to our data to quizzes and games they played.

3. Aleksandr Kogan, a Cambridge University student created a Personality Quiz App.

   All of us have played those quiz apps which ask a bunch of questions and then post our personality type. This application was installed by 300,000 people (which means they willingly “allowed” the access of their “public” data). Now these 300,000 people did gave the consent to the developer to have access to their data but due to the flaw of facebook, the developer also got the consent to access their friends’ “public’ data. I keep putting double quotes on public because only the data that everyone sets as public is accessible. Private data cannot be accessed by anyone.

4. Facebook corrected this mistake in 2014

   by limiting the amount of data that can be accessed by a developer. Basically even if a person has “allowed” (again you have explicitly given consent for your data to be used) the application to access their data, the application cannot access their friend’s data unless the friend has also explicitly given consent to the application.

5. In 2015, Facebook found out that Kogan had shared the data he collected with Cambridge Analytica. 

   Facebook policies clearly state that developers are not allowed to share the data without the consent of the users which is why Facebook asked both CA and Kogan to certify that they have deleted the illegally collected data. The certifications were provided.

6. Last week Facebook found that CA may have not deleted the data 

   and they immediately banned them from using their services. CA has agreed for a proper forensic audit to confirm that they have deleted the data.

Facebook Data Scandal: Steps by Facebook

1. The problem that caused this massive data breach has already been fixed by Facebook in 2014 as mentioned above.
2. Facebook is now checking each and every application that had access to data before 2014.
3. They have limited the access that the developers can have for example, if you haven’t used an application for more than three months, it could no longer access your data.
4. Earlier, no matter what kind of Facebook ad it was, the only thing that distinguished it from a normal post was a small “sponsored” tag on the top. For political ads, there is going to be a clear message that the ad was sponsored by so and so party. Therefore, the influence on elections or other political agenda would drastically be reduced.

Mark Zuckerberg, the CEO of Facebook, takes all the blame and responsibility for this scandal but in my opinion, his company and him specifically were not at fault anywhere. They have adhered to the data protection policies of each and every government around the world and they take privacy very seriously. Facebook is a Social Media platform and it can be used for good as well as bad. It is the people who are actually using Facebook to do harm. Just so everyone stops blaming Facebook, I am going to list a few things we as users often neglect while using any website online.

Understanding the Internet

Now that you know what happened, let me tell you something about the internet. Before Facebook, Google, YouTube and various other websites, internet services were actually chargeable. This means that when you wanted to access the content on someone’s website, you actually had to pay a monthly subscription fee. This hindered the growth of internet tremendously and people actually had a hard time finding all the cool stuff we can find with just a click of a button.

Before Facebook was even in the picture, Google created a free search engine. Focus on the word “Free”. Why would someone offer something as incredibly useful as Google for free? How does Google actually make their money if their most used products i.e. YouTube and Google are for “Free”? They sell advertisements. Marketing on the internet is actually the largest part of the marketing industry. I would not go into details but even Facebook and various other websites actually use advertisements and affiliate marketing to make money. You think what you are using is free but they are actually making money because of you.

What are Cookies?

Not going much into detail, Cookies are text files which are usually encrypted and present in your own browser that you use to access the internet. The cookies have important information like your browser name, the type of internet connection, location, IP address, logs, etc. For more information check out this article at Privacy Policy Online. All the websites that you visit around the world generate and store cookies on your browser and can access them. This helps in various cool stuff that the website can do for you, for example remembering your session and saving your preferences so that you don’t have to set them up every time.

You are actually prompted to agree to a Privacy Policy before using any website on the internet and you willingly click “I Agree” without reading what you are agreeing to. This policy has explicitly written that the website collects your browsing data and user preferences to better your experience.

What other data do you provide while using the Internet?

Apart from regular jibber jabber like your IP address, MAC address, location, type of internet connection, etc. You also provide your browsing history and you actually agree to each and every website’s privacy policy and user agreement without even giving it a second thought. Just like that both Facebook and Google have a lengthy User Agreement and Privacy Policy that explicitly explains all their users that they collect their data which includes everything that they do on the internet. If you use Google Chrome on your mobile as well as desktop, the only way your browsing history stays synced is if you allow Google to collect that data.

How does it benefit them?

Have you ever visited an online shopping store to look for shoes and then immediately changed your mind and started reading some article on some other website? You must have noticed that when you do that, you immediately get an ad on that website that shows you an offer on those exact shoes! This is because Google Ad Network and Facebook Ad Network is bigger than you realize. Both the shopping store as well as the website are in that network and their algorithms know that you were thinking of buying those shoes which is why it showed you that offer.

The entire game of Advertisement and Analytics revolves around the user i.e. you. You actually agree to Privacy Policies and User Agreements and various other documents without blinking an eye. Here is a short video by Adam Conover has aptly explained this on his show “Adam Ruins Everything” and here is a snippet for it:

Consolidated Understanding of Internet

What I am trying to say here is that you as a user agree to let your data be collected by all the awesome cool social media websites, knowledge blogs, video websites, search engines and the data includes but is not limited to your browsing history, your interests, your eating habits, whether or not you have pets, your political views, your religious views, your scientific knowledge, your education, your family tree, the history of your illnesses and your family illnesses, etc. All this constitutes to your online persona and your real life personality. You agree for all these websites to collect this data and how to use this data is up to these websites.

Privacy Settings

Each and every website you log in to has its own set of privacy settings. Some data is public and available to everyone, some data is kind of public i.e. only friends and friends of friends can access that data, some data is even less visible that only friends can access that data and finally some data is only visible to you i.e. the data that is marked as only me. All social media websites, search engines, email providers, etc. basically anyone or anything that provides you services on the internet has some sort of classification of data and not all data is available to everyone.

You as the user of that particular service have the sole right of allowing or not allowing who gets to access that particular data. Facebook advertisers or the algorithm that is used for targeting facebook users is totally based on the public data that is available on Facebook. The same goes for YouTube and Google. All your private data or data that can only be accessed by your friends, friends of friends or only you is completely 100% off the reach of advertiser, Facebook user, Mark Zuckerberg or any employee at Facebook.

The data breach was not Mark’s fault. It was the fault of all the 300,000 users who willingly gave access to their data by clicking on the “I agree” button that comes each time you allow any other application to have access to your Facebook data. The authorization popup that comes clearly states what all data you would be providing access to if and when you click “I agree”. You can always not use that particular application if you feel uncomfortable sharing that particular data.

Other Websites

The same thing applies with anything you use. If you download a particular application from Apple Store or Play Store, you are given a popup. This popup shows all the permissions that the application would have. You have the sole control of allowing or not allowing those permissions. If you allow someone to use your data, that doesn’t make it a breach in privacy. It clearly means you have given your own consent. Anyone feeling uncomfortable with all this should stop using those services altogether. Those services actually use your data to make your experience more personalized and bring you features that you would like.

Steps To Ensure Your Data Stays Secure

Each and every company, work towards data security as they have access to enormous amounts of data of their users. Smartphones using Android now have the ability to deny permissions to certain applications.. Apple’s iOS has always taken data security seriously. They don’t allow any kind of unauthorized access as their App Store is regularly checked. Facebook and Google do collect data but no person has any access to this data. This data is feeded into algorithms that better personalize your experience. I personally don’t mind them targeting me for advertisements that might interest me. It actually reduces my effort and actually improves my internet experience. If you feel uncomfortable then you should keep everything private. You have an option to do so.

Facebook Data Scandal was the fault of the unaware user. This post is to ensure everyone is aware and can actually take steps to keep their data secure. If you are not interested and it doesn’t matter if web giants collect your data, just skip ahead. Here are a few things you can do:

1. Check your privacy settings:

   Take the time and check privacy settings of each and everything that you use to connect to the internet. This includes your browsers and applications that use the internet. You would learn what all is accessible by the world and you can limit the access if required.

2. Read the User Agreement and Privacy Policy:

   I know it is lengthy but all the data that the particular companies have access to is described in there. Have some patience and read it. If you think you are uncomfortable with the information provided there, stop using that particular service.

3. Know that nothing on the internet is 100% Private:

   You already know that even companies like Ashley Madison were breached. This means that your data is never 100% secure. These companies do work their asses off to ensure your data stays secure. But somewhere in the globe, a team of highly trained hackers are working to get access to your data.

4. There are always more secure alternatives:

   If you feel that Google collecting your search data is a breach of privacy, you can always use DuckDuckGo. The results would not be as accurate as google but your data would never be collected. Similarly there are private social media platforms that are chat only and don’t collect data. Whatsapp is one such example. You can use Snapchat which would doesn’t store any of your data. It won’t be able to give you the pleasure of enjoying a memory like Facebook does. Pros and Cons are for each and every service. Weigh them and choose accordingly.

Conclusion

There were many questions asked to Zuckerberg in the Congress Assembly. While some were intelligent questions, most questions were asked as if the people asking are totally unaware of how the internet functions. Some questions actually made me laugh and pity Zuckerberg. Although he cannot publicly say it but I’m sure he would feel the same way. He answered all questions confidently and correctly. If you know the A-Z of internet and how it functions, you would feel the same way.

The algorithms of almost all websites are designed to be protected from any kind of unauthorized access. Even employees of facebook that work on the server level can’t access your personal data. Only you and the algorithms can access that data as it is highly encrypted. Data breaches on a security standpoint are considered the fault of these web giants. But breaches like the Cambridge Analytica breach are the fault of the unaware user and not Facebook. So I request everyone to kindly get their facts straight before they go and tarnish the good name of Facebook and esteemed businessmen like Mark Zuckerberg.