Facebook data leak: How businesses can offer secured social-networks

#DeleteFacebook. This hashtag became trending two weeks ago on Twitter when WhatsApp founder Brian Acton tweeted about it. Several celebrities including actor Jim Carrey and Apple co-founder Steve Woznaik ‘heard’ the call and expressed disappointment over Facebook’s leak of user data. The Cambridge Analytica and Facebook data leak scandal still seems to be just the tip of the iceberg.

While Mark Zuckerberg testified before the Congress this week, Facebook lost $35billion in revenue. Every day, the stock prices are going down while several investors continue to sell their Facebook shares. Yet, not many users have practically deleted their Facebook account. Why? Here are the possible reasons –
1] They don’t understand the implications of data leak
2] Deleting Facebook account doesn’t fully make sense because Instagram and WhatsApp are also owned by Facebook Inc. The company has their data in one or the other way.
3] Millions of them don’t care about the data leak because, unlike many celebrities, they have nothing to hide.
4] Many think that if they are among those 50 million users whose data was compromised, it’s already too late to protect their data.
5] They have evolved as users to know that – if anything is free, they (users) are the product and data leak is the price they pay.

What is the Cambridge Analytica-Facebook scandal?

Cambridge Analytica, a data firm that worked with President Donald Trump in the 2016 elections, had received an unauthorized access to 50 million Facebook user accounts. Ever since the news surfaced, Facebook has maintained that the data was gained “through legitimate channels,” but misused by Cambridge Analytica. The company also claimed that it had ordered for the data to be destroyed in 2015 and that it was later discovered that Cambridge Analytica had not deleted all the data. In fact, many newspapers have reported now that Cambridge still holds “most or all” of that data. The bigger issue is that Facebook had known about this leak for as long as two years and did nothing to notify its users. Why? Because Cambridge’s violation was not exactly a ‘breach’ of Facebook’s security policies. Later, the company suspended the account of the whistle blower Christopher Wylie.

A few things stand out in this data leak scam –

/ User data is preserved in a form that it can be read or accessed by a third party with access permissions
/ The admin has access to user data and it can choose to share it with a third party
/ Users never get notified as and when their data is being used or shared or preserved
/ Data managers are often employees who may have access to this data even after they have left the network admin’s company
/ Social network platforms can’t police themselves, as in, they have no mechanism to check whether or not user data shared with a third party earlier is still being used

It’s not just Facebook, it’s most public social networks

Since the elections, American lawmakers have been trying to track down any leakage or misuse of user data. They have been extremely wary about platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, and Alphabet investigating any potential behaviour manipulation to their role in showing Russian-backed ads during the 2016 elections. Basically, all technology companies are currently under government and political radar about how they manage their user information.

Users are slowly jumping ships

Users are not worried about losing their Facebook data because that can easily be archived. However, there has now been an increasing trend about users choosing niche social networking platforms in order to socialize and network. The fact that many of them didn’t delete their Facebook accounts shows that they are channelizing their networking needs elsewhere instead of taking any drastic measures. With the scandal, they have got one message quite loud and clear – public social networks cannot be trusted. Back in May 2017, a survey had revealed that 59% of online users fear that their money or important information will be sold online.

How do we know users are looking for niche social networks?

1] The five leading social networking platforms – Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest, Snapchat and Instagram – have ‘grouping’ approach. Users have formed exclusive Facebook groups, joined certain hashtags to keep up with their kind of interests.
2] Sports fans are actively joining dedicated social networks on the sports they love. Example, Infield Chatter – the exclusive social network by Major League Baseball launched in 2017. It has millions of users since its launch.
3] Tumblr launched Cabana – a social media app that allows friends to watch videos together despite that there are quite a lot of similar apps in the market. Video social networking may be the next big trend considering that Youtube is slowly adding social networking features in its application.

How Facebook-Cambridge leak is a business opportunity?

The Analytical Cambridge and Facebook data leak has created a dent in the minds of users that nobody can ever change. The millennial users interact with technology devices so much that they have become more aware of their rights. It’s not news to any user anymore that the ads they see every day on social networking platforms are curated by admins using their data. Another vital factor that we highlighted earlier is that even in public social networks, users are looking for their own ‘niche’. No wonder, we are now seeing a rise in women-only social networks, social media apps for sports lovers, travellers, writers, adventure lovers and so on. This is a strong indication that the market is now ready for private and customized social networks.

What can businesses offer social media consumers?

# 1 Transparent use of data

While the access to user data cannot be completely avoided even in a custom social network, its usage can be notified to the respective users. In Europe, this is already happening at the government level. The General Data Protection Regulation, to be effective from May 25th 2018, will require companies having online or technology business to notify users when their data is being collected apart from getting their consent as to whether they wish to disclose it. Businesses can easily implement these practices at technology level where they can make user data subject to either encryption or through a transparent disclosure policy. This may be the rise of data-secured networks trusted by users.

# 2 Niche-based custom social networks

Businesses selling apparel, automobiles, luxury goods, shoes, travel packages etc can create niche-based social networks for better grip on users and their interests. This would open up a whole new avenue of product advocacy without annoying users with unwanted ads.

# 3 Social networks on blockchain

Smarter companies have already started tapping into the blockchain technology in order to create smart social networks. Since blockchain technology uses cryptographic codes, nobody can practically own user data. In fact, Blockchain can make social networks more private and professional and are now revitalizing social network websites. A blockchain social network Obsidian is a fully decentralized network where users get paid in cryptocurrency for creating content.

Vinfotech, has been creating custom social network for almost eight years now. Our experience in social media design and development, and our in-depth knowledge of blockchain application can help you integrate the two technologies to create a killer social network application. With a history of customer oriented design, and excellent command over development/testing and marketing, Vinfotech can help you in creating custom social networks that our users will trust.