Facebook’s Legal Challenges and Ethical Failures: Examining Data Privacy, Regulation, and Corporate Accountability
This paper describes the Facebook-Cambridge Analytica data scandal and how it affected the presidential campaigns in United States of America. Additionally, the paper explains how data manipulation is a dangerous unethical practice that should be avoided by companies dealing with people data. The paper supports the view that Facebook should face legal fine for breach of trust and sharing people personal information. The paper recommends the need for Facebook to adopt effective data encryption models to avoid future data breach. The firm should also hire privacy experts to monitor how people use data in their platform.
A Brief History of the Company
Facebook is one of the social media companies based in the United States of America. The Company was founded in early 2004 in the Menlo Park, CA (Fuller, 2019). The firm main founder is known as Mark Elliot Zuckerberg. The company currently operates worldwide and its act as a social networking site where people share information and news around the world. Additionally, the firm mostly engages in the provision and creation of social media systems that allow people to connect with their friends and family members using their mobile phones or computers (Wilson, 2019).
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Furthermore, it should be noted that Facebook allow people to share their perspectives and opinions about current events in the society. People also use Facebook to share their photos and videos. In some cases, influential people are using Facebook to educate the public about various topics. Currently, some political leaders are using Facebook platform to campaign and engage with their followers (Kozlowska, 2018). Due to this, the company has been witnessing various unethical practices and controversies around the world. However, it should be noted that the main competitors of Facebook includes Twitter and Snap-Chat Company (Venturini & Rogers, 2019). With its wide financial market share, Facebook key products currently include Instagram, as well as Messenger and Whats-App. All these products are used by billions of people across the world (Wilson, 2019).
Detailed description of any unethical practices current and past
Facebook has been experiencing different unethical practices and this is why the company has been subjected to wide and many controversies across the world (Wilson, 2019). One of the major ethical issues facing the firm has been the issues of user’s privacy and confidentiality of information. The firm has been accused on selling people private data to companies and politicians across the world (Fuller, 2019). The biggest unethical issue that was witnessed recently in the firm involving user privacy problem was the Cambridge Analytica data scandal. This was unethical issue since the firm was accused on involving in collaboration with other organizations in order to promote political manipulation around the world including on the 2016 U.S. presidential election (Kozlowska, 2018).
The firm was accused of engaging in human psychological torture and manipulating people data and share to influence the success of particular politicians (Venturini & Rogers, 2019). This was a violation of people privacy and unlawful facilitation of wrong information to the public to create non-existent situation (Fuller, 2019). The company was wrong in sharing user’s personal data without their consent. The activity led to political marketing and such programs or unethical practices should be avoided in the future operations of the firm.
Moreover, it was evident that the company also used user’s friend’s data and manipulates the public opinion. The practice involved building the public profile of the users and selling the data to the political leaders to use them during campaigns (Fuller, 2019). This led to the view that Trump was leading and was liked by many in the society. This is political manipulation and psychological torture to the public and the company customers.
The issue involved harvesting of more than fifty million voters data in the United States of America and building a psychological profile that support Trump Presidency (Kozlowska, 2018). The company also did the same unethical practice in Russia to show how political manipulation can help political leader’s successes. This is unethical and should be avoided to ensure that the firm build good and stable global brand image.
What, if anything, was done by the company to correct those actions and the final outcome?
In order to correct the situation, the firm CEO Mark Zuckerberg made an attempt to apologize for the public. However, this did not change the condition since he only argued that it was a mistake (Fuller, 2019). The company noted that the Cambridge Analytica made a breach of trust and the company plan was to provide ways of locking out people data (Venturini & Rogers, 2019). As a result, the company developed more encryption platforms and provided more ways that users can adopt to monitor their personal data (Kozlowska, 2018).
The firm also responded by developing new programs that can help to prevent similar future unethical practices. The company also wrote a letter through its CEO on daily newspaper and other platforms to apologize for the public and users of Facebook (Kozlowska, 2018). Additionally, the incident led to the re-formulation of data protection policies among the company and in other regions such as in the European Union. However, it was surprising that the event or incident led to a huge revenue loss in the firm and the management reported big losses after the scandal (Wilson, 2019). This is a clear indication that the incident has a negative impact on the firm operations and such incidents or unethical practices should be avoided by the firm in its major future operations and activities.
Personal Opinion on the Company and their Practices
From my personal opinion, I believe that the company practice was unethical and should not be promoted around the world. I believe that it is important that the firm avoid allowing and coordinating with other firms in sharing people profiles. This is creating wrong impressions and damaging the reputation of the company. I believe that engaging in data breach is wrong and political manipulation should be avoided by the firm (Fuller, 2019).
Moreover, I believe that the global governments were right in condemning the incident. Many people across Europe, Asia and Africa were affected by the bread and having a lawsuit against the company was right. I believe that the firm should be fined more to help them learn and avoid engaging in such unethical practices in the future.
I believe that sharing people data without their consent is wrong. The company made a mistake in collaborating with Cambridge Analytica and their action should be condemned across the globe. I believe that the company top management should learn from the incident and adopt effective data protection reforms to ensure that the public are safe while using its products and survives (Kozlowska, 2018). The aftermath of the incident clearly define its gross nature and the company experienced a huge loss of revenue after the information was leaked and shared with the public. For example, some individuals deleted their Facebook Profile (Brown, 2020). Others stop using the company in marketing and advertising their products and services. This led to low revenue generation in the company.
Importantly, I believe that Facebook should learn from companies such as Twitter and provide proper data encryption models that will protect the privacy and confidentiality of the user’s information (Wilson, 2019). Currently, data is a big asset and companies dealing with people data should ensure that such data are secure and free from manipulation. It is imperative that the company monitor how people use data and information in their platform. This is because many people have died across the world due to cyber bullying from Facebook platform (Kozlowska, 2018). Such practices should be avoided and the company should ensure any information associated with psychological torture and human manipulation is controlled in all its platforms.
To help build reputation and achieve more revenues, I believe that the firm should hire talented individuals who can help monitor what global political leaders post in their platform (Wilson, 2019). This is important in controlling negative campaigns and poor posts that can negatively affect the public and create animosity around the world (Brown, 2020). The firm should also adopt end to end data encryption models and include data privacy experts in their global operations (Kozlowska, 2018). The primary aim of the firm is to allow the public to share relevant information and any psychological data should be controlled and avoided.
The incident increase anti-trust actions against the company and the only way the firm can regain its lost glory is by promoting relevant and proper data encryption. Importantly, it is important that individuals who misuse and abuse data protection laws should be banned from using the platform. The company should also reward people who are using their platform in a positive way (Kozlowska, 2018). Additionally, I believe that the firm should adopt diversification and collaborative ventures in order to increase its revenue in the long run.