Facebook’s Sandberg goes into crisis mode
Scrutiny is likely to get hotter on social network
SAN FRANCISCO – The escalating crisis over Facebook’s handling of users’ personal information has some people asking: Where was Sheryl Sandberg?
Mark Zuckerberg’s second-in-command runs Facebook’s operations and oversees its advertising business, placing her in a nearly unrivaled role of responsibility when as many as 87 million Facebook users had their data siphoned by Cambridge Analytica, a
British firm with ties to Donald Trump’s 2016 presidential campaign.
“Sheryl did an unparalleled job, the best any person has ever done in any company at creating a business,” said David Kirkpatrick, author of The Facebook Effect and founder of the Techonomy conference business. The lack of vigilance over security and privacy has imperiled that success, he said. “If Mark hired her to set policies, something went wrong, because the policies didn’t get set,” Kirkpatrick said.
Pivotal Research Group analyst Bri-
an Wieser predicted scrutiny on Facebook will intensify. The Federal Trade Commission is investigating whether Facebook violated a 2011 agreement to get permission from users before sharing their data. U.S. lawmakers are drawing up legislation that could restrict what the company does with data, and stricter privacy laws go into effect next month in Europe.
Sandberg, who declined an interview request from USA TODAY, did not accompany Zuckerberg last week when the Facebook CEO testified before Congress.
To achieve their model of Silicon Valley success over the past decade, the business veteran worked hand in glove with the less experienced founder to build a business that generates billions of dollars by getting people to open up about their lives.
Facebook elevated her profile in the business world as she opened up about her own life in two deeply personal books, Lean In, a best seller championing women in the workplace, and Option B, a meditation on love, loss and resilience after the sudden death of her husband, Dave Goldberg, in 2015.
“At this point, it’s hard to imagine Facebook without Sheryl,” Zuckerberg said in a Facebook post last month on her 10-year anniversary with the company. Calling her “a great friend and partner,” Facebook’s co-founder and CEO wrote, “I know we face many difficult challenges, but there’s no one I trust more to work through this with.”
After long days and late nights hunkered down with Zuckerberg while the public fumed over the Cambridge Analytica incident, Sandberg hit the interview circuit to apologize for Facebook’s lapses. Inside Facebook, Sandberg runs point, marshaling company resources and assembling teams to make good on promises Zuckerberg made to Congress and Facebook users.
In 2014, about 300,000 Facebook users downloaded a personality quiz app, This Is Your Digital Life. The researcher behind the app collected data not just on those users but on their Facebook friends, then passed that data on to Cambridge Analytica. Facebook failed to alert individual users that their data had been improperly harvested until this month.
The Facebook platform that allows software developers to reach Facebook users does not fall under Sandberg’s area of responsibility. But the Cambridge Analytica crisis erupted as Facebook’s advertising business took fire for allowing Russian operatives to use fake accounts during the presidential election to try to sow political discord and sway voter opinion.
In a series of interviews, Sandberg took responsibility for failing to ensure that Facebook operations had enough staff to protect users’ privacy. “On the things we didn’t do that we should’ve done that are under my purview, that’s my responsibility, and I own that,” she told BuzzFeed.
She pointed out that the leak of Facebook user data to Cambridge Analytica was not connected to Facebook’s advertising business. And she has defended the business that relies on the mass collection of Facebook users’ data, saying it benefits consumers.
That message may not resonate with Facebook users. A survey of 1,000 Americans during the first week of April by technology research group Creative Strategies found that 9% had deleted their Facebook profiles, and 35% said they used Facebook less frequently.
“The bottom line is, if you had to pick any one person responsible for creating the circumstances that led to this situation, it is Sheryl Sandberg,” Silicon Valley futurist Paul Saffo said.
Unlike Google, which runs ads that complement search results, Facebook shows users targeted ads based on information they share and information gleaned about them.
Sandberg served as chief of staff to Treasury Secretary Lawrence Summers during the Clinton administration when she was 29. Over the years, she has developed a vast social network that bridges technology and politics.
As the prospect of regulation looms, Facebook is fortunate to have a leader who knows the Capitol corridors so well, said Michael Useem, professor at the Wharton School at the University of Pennsylvania.
“For a long time, Facebook was not in the crosshairs of Washington,” Useem said. “But now it is.”