Facebook Security Breach Essay

As one of the most used social media sites globally, consumers of Facebook expect for their personal data to remain safe and secure. This is why many were shocked to discover that the data of over 50 million Facebook users were misused by the data firm Cambridge Analytica. While Facebook was not hacked by Cambridge Analytica, the data firm was able to obtain the logins of thousands of Facebook users through a method called “seeding” and use that data to get information about the user’s friends. Because some the Facebook users willingly gave their information to Cambridge Analytica through a third-party application, and then Cambridge misused that data, many Facebook employees affirm that this was not a data breach because no information was hacked, however, they still take full responsibility for not protecting the data of their users and policing the access that these companies outside of Facebook have. For any company, data security should be the prime concern because they have a responsibility to their consumers to keep their data safe and prevent it from being misused. A data leak of any size could cause the credibility of the business to go down, ultimately causing revenue to be lost. For example, after the

Zuckerberg knew that these outside companies were obtaining the information of users, however, he should have done more to make sure that these companies were not misusing this information. The company is facing a huge privacy issue because of this ethical dilemma. Now that Facebook users are concerned with how private their information is, many are beginning to distrust the company, and even are deactivating their accounts. This is because Facebook has a responsibility to their users to keep their private information