LACK OF TRUST
USERS LOG OUT OF FACEBOOK
AUSTRALIANS flat-out don’t trust Facebook any more with four-in-five users fearing their information is being hacked and more than half thinking Mark Zuckerberg should reimburse them if he’s pilfering their personal information to sell to advertisers. Just 15 per cent of the population are confident Facebook will keep their personal data secure, according to a national YouGov Galaxy survey, which found the level of trust in Zuckerberg’s social media behemoth was “phenomenally low”. And the survey was taken before the Cambridge Analytica scandal revealed sensitive information was being harvested from more than 50 million Facebook profiles to swing the US election. About 80 per cent of people fear their “identity could be stolen” through Facebook. And more than half think they should be paid if their information is onsold by social media networks. “If the survey was rerun now … the level of trust in Facebook would have slumped significantly – and it was starting from a low benchmark,” YouGov Galaxy managing director David Briggs said.
The survey, commissioned by News Corp, found 62 per cent of Australians do not trust Facebook, with 84 per cent saying they should be able to opt out of having their information stored.
Senior research fellow David Glance said Australians were finally “waking up to how much information they are leaking through Facebook”.
“Facebook built a platform, they don’t really know how it’s being used by bad actors and don’t really know how to control that,” the University of Western Australia associate professor, who sold $30,000 of shares in what was until recently the world’s fifth-biggest
IF THE SURVEY WAS RERUN NOW ... THE LEVEL OF TRUST IN FACEBOOK WOULD SLUMP SIGNIFICANTLY DAVID BRIGGS, YOUGOV GALAXY
company, said. “I didn’t want to be invested in a company as bad as Facebook.”
Facebook has detailed data on about 16 million Australians. Many have provided their date of birth, credit card details and names of relatives, while some users have discovered Facebook has logs of their phone calls and text messages.
While there is a growing awareness that it tracks other sites you visit on the internet, what is less well known is Facebook recently started using facial recognition to identify users in photos and that an account holder has to opt out to stop this happening.
The YouGov Galaxy poll found even a majority of Millennials do not trust Facebook. The commissioner for eSafety Julie Inman Grant recommended all social media users limit the amount of personal information they provide.
“Restricting details about your address, contact information, job, and even your date of birth are all ways to reduce the likelihood of your data being used inappropriately,” Ms Inman Grant said.
The Australian Competition and Consumer Commission is holding an inquiry into “digital platforms” such as Facebook and Twitter.
It is looking at the “objectivity and accuracy” of news shown to users of the platforms, as well as whether there are “adequate levels of privacy and data protection” and “the extent to which consumers understand what data is being collected about them by digital platforms, and how this information is used”. It is taking submissions until Tuesday.
The Federal Government is also preparing a new law – the Consumer Data Right Act.
“The legislation will seek to ensure that data can only be used for the purpose for which it was provided,” Cyber Security Minister Angus Taylor said.
“It will also give people the ability to access and edit their data, and be fully informed about how it’s used.”