Are Facebook users abandoning the platform in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal?
As Hatch@Macleay’s Jack Sammut discovered, the answer may surprise you.
Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg has been fronting the US Congress to explain the platform’s role in the Cambridge Analytica data breach. And while he appears to have escaped questioning relatively unscathed, ultimately his user base will determine the company’s future.
To get in front of a potential exodus, Facebook has promised to make its privacy settings more accessible. Chief Technology Officer, Mike Schroepfer, released a statement advising users that from April 9 (last Monday), a link would appear at the top of News Feeds showing them what apps they use and the information they have shared with those apps. They’ll then have the option to remove apps they no longer want.
“As part of this process, we will also tell people if their information may have been improperly shared with Cambridge Analytica,” he said.
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But will it be enough?
Hatch@Macleay surveyed social media users between the ages of 18 to 25, to see if they’re concerned enough about their privacy to deactivate their accounts.
The results were interesting.
Of the 42 respondents, 42.5% said that the biggest reason they would leave – is if all their friends started to leave.
And in a surprising result… 75.6% said that they had never researched how much Facebook knows about them.
— Story and infographic, Jack Sammut