The Independent

Want to protect your data? Throw out your computer

- JAMES MOORE CHIEF BUSINESS COMMENTATO­R

Facebook, eh? It markets itself as your digital pal it’s fun to spend time with. Here’s a cute memory we’ve found. Here’s a video featuring everything you’ve done during your time with us. Here’s a quiz you can play to find out which Game of Thrones character you’re like.

In reality it’s a spy that sits on your phone, tablet and computer, as the scandal over the mining of users’ data by Cambridge Analytica – it sounds like something from one of John Le Carre’s post-Cold War novels – for political purposes makes clear.

That scandal wiped $40bn (£29bn) from Facebook’s market value, which is some hit. There aren’t that many companies worth $40bn, let alone capable of seeing $40bn evaporate. But data’s powerful stuff. It is the most powerful commodity in the informatio­n age, and Facebook has a stack of it. This has made it worth north of $500bn, which puts that $40bn loss into some sort of context.

Here’s the thing. Didn’t we already know that Facebook wasn’t as cuddly as it would have us believe? Been searching Amazon for the Little Mix CD your younger sister’s after? Kerchow! There are Little Mix ads all over your Facebook feed when you wanted everyone who looked over your shoulder to know that Wolf Alice was your thing.

There are almost certainly others out there doing similar things right now. But they’re still in the shadows

If Little Mix’s label, and Amazon, can use Facebook like that, should it really come as a surprise that those seeking to sell something rather darker than harmless pop music might see the potential, and might be tempted to cross a few lines to realise it.

Cambridge Analytica’s biggest sin? It has had the whistle blown on it. There are almost certainly others out there doing similar things right now. But they’re still in the shadows. The problem for Facebook, the business, is what follows from the publicity being given to their activities.

Lots of Facebook users have long had a jaundiced view of the way the company treats them, hence the (mostly fake) memes detailing nefarious plans on its part that had people declaring that their photos were their copyright (for all the good it did them) a while back.

It is legislator­s (and perhaps lawyers) who are reacting to news that may create a business issue for the company, at least if they finally make an attempt to do something about a problem they should have acted on years ago. If new laws and regulation­s appear they will impose a cost burden on the firm, hence the $40bn hit, some, if not most, of which Facebook will likely claw back because the market always overreacts to this sort of thing.

In the meantime, the only way to protect oneself from the lesser Cambridge Analytica’s beavering away in the shadows is to emulate Ron Swanson from NBC’s gently satirical Parks and Recreation (highly recommende­d, you can see it on Amazon Prime). When his intern explained how internet cookies worked to try and sell him stuff he picked up his terminal and threw it in the dumpster.

That probably won’t change, whatever legislator­s eventually come up with.

 ?? (Reuters) ?? Legislator­s may try to impose new laws in the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, but they probably won’t change much
(Reuters) Legislator­s may try to impose new laws in the wake of the Facebook and Cambridge Analytica scandal, but they probably won’t change much

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