Can we trust Facebook?

Facebook’s security and private related revelation issue is concerning every Facebook users. Not only random Facebook users but also advocates and politicians as well. Private advocates and politicians are calling on Facebook and other social media platform to be more responsible and strict about privacy issues.

Mark Zuckerberg finally came to public after days of silence. After the reports that Cambridge Analytica misused its data, and it failed to protect its users. Less than a week later, Facebook has promised once again to protect its users. The company also promised to improve its privacy setting. Will users trust Facebook?

Facebook and its history

Facebook is very popular social network site and one of the biggest company in the world. Facebook was launched on February 2014 by Zuckerberg along with his fellow Harvard college students.

Is this the first time that Facebook is having a problem regarding security issue?

The answer is No! Facebook have so many issues since 2006 regarding security and privacy problem. According to a website called WIRED the problem that Facebook facing is not new. It says, ‘There was a problem since the beginning and there will be unsolved problem forever’. In 2006 when Facebook launched newsfeed a lot of users were against it. It’s because Facebook users post were revealed in one centralized place. Mark Zuckerberg apologized for the mistake they made.

Eventually, concerns and revolts against newsfeed stopped as people get used it. The second problem that happened in Facebook history was in 2007. When Facebook announced a targeted advertising product, Beacon (Beacon is part of Facebook's advertisement system that sent data from external websites to Facebook, for allowing targeted advertisements and allowing users to share their activities with their friends) users were outraged that Facebook was using their personal information for the sake of advertisement—literally, all information for instead, if they bought ticket for a concert Facebook deliver it to other companies so that advertisers target them. Because of complaints Facebook shut down Beacon on 2009.

“We have a responsibility to protect your data, and if we can't then we don't deserve to serve

you.” –Mark Zuckerberg

In 2009, 2010, 2011 and 2013 have been dealing with questions concerning security. But this year is quite different than previous one. People are saying ‘Facebook is on fire’. Even Mark Zuckerberg admitted as they made a big mistake and for the first time he apologized not on Facebook or in his blog instead he apologized publicly.

What did the founder of Facebook said about all this scandals?

The founder of Facebook also said that “I started Facebook, and at the end of the day I’m responsible for what happens on our platform,”

“I’m serious about doing what it takes to protect our community. While this specific issue involving Cambridge Analytica should no longer happen with new apps today, that doesn’t change what happened in the past. We will learn from this experience to secure our platform further and make our community safer for everyone going forward.”

Among billions of Facebook users, I talked to Najiya a senior undergraduate student in Anadolu University she said; “its been almost 8 years since I started using Facebook. When I first open Facebook account I was so excited and trusted Facebook with all my hearts but now, I don’t trust it” Najiya said she don’t blame Mark Zuckerberg for what’s happening “he tried his best to protect our privacy, but hackers did what they did so blaming Facebook for what’s happening is not fair.” At the end najiya said that “I don’t trust social media at all, people shouldn’t trust it as well.”

Apparently, it seems like the company is taking things seriously and working hard to make changes, but review the evidence and it sounds like trite old news. Indeed, It’s a version of something we’ve all heard before.