Facebook flawed, but few can give it up

Social network deeply embedded in users’ lives

April Farren would love to quit Facebook, she really would.

But she’s done it before, and it didn’t work out so well.

“I didn’t get invited to anything anymore,” says Farren, 45, a single mom who works in IT near Austin, Texas. “In my town, everybody has their calendars integrated with Facebook, and it’s the hub of your entire social interaction. If I’m not on Facebook, I’m gone. I had to go back.”

Farren was upset about the various data breaches and back-pedaling of bad news from the social network, and like many consumers, she is still furious with Facebook’s endless array of apologies this year.

The avalanche began in March when Facebook admitted that a rogue app developer, Cambridge Analytica, had shared personal data of 87 million Facebook users and continued through the year. In September, Facebook said accounts of nearly 50 million users were breached. This month, the social network admitted to a bug that may have affected up to 6.8 million people. This week:

The National Association for the Advancement of Colored People called for a boycott of Facebook in response to a report suggesting that Facebook allowed Russian hackers to specifically target African-Americans in the 2016 election.

Influential tech columnist Walt Mossberg announced he was deleting his Facebook account, saying the company’s actions made him uncomfortable.

A lawsuit was filed by the attorney general for the District of Columbia for allowing Cambridge Analytica to share personal information without users’ permission.

The New York Times reported that Facebook had shared personal data with many marketing firms, including Spotify and Yahoo.

Steve Satterfield, director of privacy and public policy at Facebook, admitted as much, saying, “These partners can only offer specific Facebook features and are unable to use information for independent purposes.”

The cumulative effect of all this bad news? A political and public relations nightmare, but not much more than that. According to market research firm eMarketer, Facebook’s ad sales are still growing and the user base is still strong. “We’ve seen no falloff,”

says Debra Aho Williamson, an eMarketer analyst.

The user base has expanded from 2.196 billion in the first quarter of the year to 2.271 billion by the third quarter. In advertising, eMarketer predicts Facebook will sell $54 billion worth of advertising in 2018, growing to $67.25 billion in 2019.

The reality is, beyond the tech press and politicians, the average consumer doesn’t care; those who do won’t take action, notes Peter Pham, president of Science, Inc., a tech incubator in Los Angeles. “There is no such thing as a free lunch,” he says. “Of course Facebook and Google use the data to show ads. How else is it a free service?”

The social network has become intricately embedded in how many communicate these days. Erika Goodmanson of Seattle said she wouldn’t ditch Facebook because, “It’s the only place where I can see all my friends’ kids and keep up with their lives. There isn’t a good alternative with enough adoption.”

The real problem for Facebook, says user Zachary Alexander of Ann Arbor, Michigan, isn’t about privacy. For him, it’s all about what the company is communicating. “My issue isn’t that the breaches happen, it’s a lack of transparency,” says Alexander, 28, who works in communications. “They’re just not being honest about the issues.”

That sense of the company not being forthcoming when addressing all the issues that have surfaced resonates. Along those lines, Michael Priem, president of Modern Impact, which buys advertising for marketers on Facebook, says the social network should stop back-pedaling bad news.

“What if they said, ‘We never foresaw how social media was going to be used, we weren’t prepared for it, but here’s what we’re doing today.’ They could get in front of it, and it would resonate so well with consumers, brands and advertisers.”

One matter for debate is who is best suited to deliver that message.

Priem believes Facebook co-founder Mark Zuckerberg is an asset the company hasn’t been using effectively. He’d like to see him more out front.

However, Michael Pachter, an analyst with Wedbush Securities, wants to see Zuckerberg in a new role for 2019. “He’s obviously a smart person, but he’s not a CEO. Brilliant tech wizards aren’t necessarily great managers.”

Pachter says Zuckerberg has to have oversight in 2019. “They need to bring in a figurehead who is credible and can actually run things. Make Zuck the chief product officer and have someone else run the company.”

He believes 2019 will be better for Facebook and much of what the company is being criticized for won’t recur. “They were loose with information and privacy and security, and they will fix it. They have to be fed up with the criticism, they have to be eager for it to end.”

Indeed, in a statement, Facebook said: “We know we’ve got work to do to regain people’s trust. Protecting people’s information requires stronger teams, better technology, and clearer policies, and that’s where we’ve been focused for most of 2018.”