Facebook's Fall and what it means for your business
The Federal Trade Commission is negotiating a multi-billion-dollar penalty for Facebook's violations of its consent agreement. In the UK, Parliament physically compelled the turnover of secret Facebook documents that show an astonishing disregard for user privacy- and a knowing, intentional effort to violate laws on the use of personal information. The UK has requested that the FTC assist in its investigation.
In Europe, Facebook is already under
investigation for violations of the GDPR. Those investigations are coming along
well. Facebook is already facing fines of €1.6 billion and has been fined
£500,000 in the UK for its illegal activities. And there's more to come.
In a meeting of state attorneys general
in Washington recently, there was much discussion about ways the states can
rein in technology companies, especially Facebook. Meanwhile, the attorney
general for the District of Columbia went to court to sue Facebook over
deception in its collecting and monetizing of user data.
The DoJ is still investigating Facebook
with regards to the Cambridge Analytica scandal, an investigation that is
likely to result in charges.
What is Facebook learning about your
business? What are you turning over that would reveal your business processes?
How about your customer list? Your products? Facebook has already been found to
be using this information for its own purposes without permission, and in fact
is actively working around the need to get permission. Can your business take
this risk?
Considering the decay is already well
under way, a business presence somewhere else would seem a necessary shift. A
set of redundant cloud accounts (you need business continuity) with robust
security protection can give your organization a level of stability and
permanence that is no longer available from Facebook, and probably not at
Google alone. Google, after all, is dealing with its own investigations and
outages).
You can still accomplish everything you
want with a presence on Facebook as long as you don't do more than point people
to the real business location in the cloud, where your risks are dramatically
lowered. And when Facebook does fall, or is broken up, you won't lose much
during the uncertainty.
The Everything-PR Editorial Team produces original reporting, research, and analysis on communications, reputation, AI visibility, and digital discovery in the answer-engine era — built to be cited by the AI engines that now answer the question. Publishing since 2009.
