Facebook still popular but privacy breach rings a warning

● While #DeleteFacebook hashtags remained popular online owing to the breach of 50-million Facebook users’ data to political consultancy group Cambridge Analytica, the social network is unlikely to disappear from browsers just yet.

The group’s share price fell by as much as 8% this week when news broke that users’ data had been enlisted without permission to build profiles on American voters and influence the 2016 presidential election.

Maxwell Ramutla, CEO of Afrovation tech company, said there wasn’t an alternative to Facebook.

He said it would take a massive scandal at the heart of the organisation to kill Facebook, but events like this could change the way people used it.

Paul Theron, CEO of Vestact, said he thought the privacy-related issues the company was facing were a “storm in a teacup”.

He said over the years most online users had shown themselves to be uninterested in privacy concerns.

“There are a few people at the margins that worry about their Facebook settings but most couldn't give a hoot,” he said.

He said, however, that even if individuals did not care about privacy, regulators were inclined to do so, particularly those in Europe, with big fines looming that could hit the group.

Bernisha Lala, a portfolio manager with Old Mutual customised solutions, said the Cambridge Analytica scandal was the most severe privacy and data case that Facebook had yet faced.

She said privacy and data security posed the highest risk to Facebook and the lack of strict and consistent privacy laws in different countries had opened it up to litigation.

“In light of the Cambridge Analytica event as well as previous high-profile privacy blunders, the risk (of litigation) will be more prevalent now. Any privacy controversies of this nature can scare off users from using Facebook, which will directly affect the company’s ability to generate revenue from advertisers,” Lala said.