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Facebook Survey Suggests Continuing US Loyalty After Cambridge Analytica Data Scandal (bbc.com)

Posted by BeauHD on from the business-as-usual dept.

A Reuters/Ipsos survey found that Facebook users in the U.S. remain loyal to the site, despite the recent Cambridge Analytica scandal that exposed the data of 87 million users. The survey "found no clear loss or gain in use since then," reports the BBC. From the report: Conducted online, the Reuters/Ipsos survey questioned 2,194 American adults between April 26 and April 30. The poll has a margin of error of three percentage points. Some 64% percent said they used Facebook at least once a day, down slightly from the 68% recorded in a similar poll in late March, soon after the Cambridge Analytica story broke. Asked if they were aware of their current privacy settings, 74% of Facebook users said they were, and 78% said they knew how to change them. Among Twitter users, this was 55% and 58%, while for Instagram users, it was 60% and 65%.

8 of 103 comments (clear)

  1. "The mob is fickle, brother... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    ...they will forget within a week"

        -- Connie Nielsen, Gladiator (2000)

  2. What else do you expect? by techno-vampire · · Score: 5, Insightful

    I don't use Facebook, but from what I can see, most people who do act as though it's an addiction. Would you expect heroin addicts to quit just because there was a report of heroin cut with rat poison in their area?

    --
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    1. Re:What else do you expect? by fafalone · · Score: 4, Interesting

      It doesn't take being addicted to not care that everything you put in a semi-public profile is available to various 3rd parties. They couldn't access private message contents, which is the only thing anyone should think wouldn't be public. I don't care that some company might have scraped my public profile info through one of my friends installing an app; even though I only add in-person friends I'd still never presume anything visible to dozens of people wasn't publicly accessible to apps on the platform.
      While I have a well thought out reason why it won't keep me off Facebook, I suspect an even larger contingent has that vague 'it's not really a secret anyway' attitude combined with the even bigger lack of direct consequences: What impact has this had on them that they can see? None. And not because they think just others were effected like your drug cut, but because even if their data was collected; so what?

  3. Surgeon General finds... by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Funny

    Studies show continued cigarette loyalty after Surgeon General's warning.

  4. No. One. Fucking. Cares. by SuperKendall · · Score: 4, Insightful

    Look technorati of Slashdot, 99.9999999999% of the human population gives zero fucks about online privacy - well actually that's not true, because 99.999999999% of the human population of Earth will actively seek to *undermine* their own privacy if given any opportunity, and be happy doing so.

    Do you get it? No? Well then, carry on in ignorance and fear. Just live with the pleasure of knowing you are "right" to be afraid, whatever that means.

    --
    "There is more worth loving than we have strength to love." - Brian Jay Stanley
  5. Re:The mob is fickle, brother...forgotten in a mon by Anonymous Coward · · Score: 5, Insightful

    The """faults""" are by design, but the only fault - getting caught and provoking media attention - will be fixed either by Facebook or by the next iteration that arises after Facebook crashes and burns.

    Incidentally, since the true catalyst for the media outrage this time around was the tangential association with Trump and the idea that Facebook's actions were indirectly helping Trump's campaign, the lesson for next time will be to discriminate even more aggressively against any candidate that the media has unanimously aligned itself against.

    Captcha: fascism

  6. Re:The mob is fickle, brother...forgotten in a mon by arglebargle_xiv · · Score: 5, Insightful

    Yup. It's like saying "nine out of ten heroin users would continue to use it even when warned about the dangers of contaminated needles".

  7. Re:The mob is fickle, brother...forgotten in a mon by Zontar+The+Mindless · · Score: 4, Interesting

    Yup. It's like saying "nine out of ten heroin users would continue to use it even when warned about the dangers of contaminated needles".

    No it's not like saying that at all. So people's data was used to help target an election campaign...

    The election tomfoolery is just the tip of the iceberg. What about stalking? Identity theft? Burglars knowing when you're out of state on vacation? Getting passed over for a job because some busybody in HR discovers that you've smoked weed a nonzero number of times? Expressing an opinion that's protected by law in your home country, but when you happen to travel to a different country, you get arrested or maybe even just disappeared, merely for having said it?

    So, yes, it is like saying that.

    --
    Il n'y a pas de Planet B.