Throwing The Book at The Face

by Stephanie Maloney

Mark Zuckerberg has kind of been the “Bill Gates of Social Media” in bringing his “dorm dream” of Free Global Connectivity to reality through his creation of Facebook.  “Aye, there’s the rub” as Shakespeare had Hamlet put it; that word free, unfortunately, has an agenda all its own.

By using data as “coin of the realm” in dealings with advertisers costs are covered and profits are made; very large amounts of capital indeed have been generated from these relationships.

The problem is a lot of us feel as though they have been less than conscientious about the bartering of personal data and informing users of incredibly widespread data breaches-that happened years ago.

Adding insult to injury in his testimony Mr. Zuckerberg confirmed what Sheryl Sandberg had stated previously about people having an option for “no data retention” but it would “fee-based”.

We would have to pay Facebook to keep our data to ourselves-so much for that “free” part of the dream.

It would appear that “Convenience made cowards of us all ” but it’s not too late to send a message to Mark since he has said that he is responsible.

There will plenty of opportunities for all of us to voice our displeasure but whether we will be motivated enough to actually “wean” ourselves off of Facebook for important interaction with those closest to us remains to be updated. Check your status.

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