Facebook has been under fire lately, probably justifiably so. Its founder and CEO spent 10 hours on Capitol Hill answering questions about the theft of data by Cambridge Analytica, Russia’s involvement in the last U.S. presidential election, and personal privacy, among other things. Zuckerberg’s answers to many questions frustrated U.S. legislators as he said he or his team would have to “get back to them”, or “follow up” with answers later on things like third party breaches, fake account takedowns, locations of the 87 million users who had their information stolen by Cambridge Analytica, off-Facebook tracking, and more including what, exactly, is Facebook and how long Facebook keeps a user’s data once they’ve chosen to delete their account? Since the news broke about the 87 million users whose data was stolen, 3% of Facebook users have left the medium and two thirds of those still using Facebook say they are much more reluctant to click on sponsored posts or ads according to an early April survey of Canadians by Audience Insights. Facebook users over age 55 are even more likely to be cautious than younger users. I’m over 55 and I’m always a bit wary of what I see on Facebook, Twitter too, for that matter, just look at Donald Trump’s rantings.
That’s Coffeetalk. I’m Vic Dubois.