A Facebook Experiment

The whole Facebook data scandal thing is in the news a lot nowadays. As someone who has been in the software industry for over 20 years, its been quite interesting to see how it has played out.

Firstly, it's almost, but not quite, a surprise to see how shocked people are. In our industry we've known that these companies we been hoovering up, and more importantly, making predictions and decisions, based on your personal data for years. We've published warnings, but no one was ready to hear them.

Secondly, I am truly shocked at how clueless the politicians questioning Mark Zuckerberg are. This is one of the biggest and most influential companies in the world and you don't know what their basic business model is? You're supposed to be responsible. (it's advertising by the way. Facebook and Google are advertising companies)

But with GDPR coming in, Facebook has released new terms of service. So I am trying a little experiment. More on that tomorrow.

Take Action: Decide how comfortable you are with your data being collected, and being used to make decisions about you and your life. And research what the consequences are.