Business Owners Beware of Facebook

In ECommerce, Website Development by Prabhu Missier

Unless you’ve been living under a rock, almost everyone today realises the games and tricks Facebook is upto. From the Cambridge Analytica scandal to insecure APIs and most recently being crowned as crapware Facebook’s fall from grace has been well deserved. So as a business owner you would be well advised to steer clear of Facebook and if you still have your business pages out there it would be a folly to continue depending on it.
Here are 3 top reasons to steer clear:

1)#DeleteFacebook
This movement has gained momentum and with very good reason. With the Cambridge Analytica scandal bringing to light the fact that many Facebook accounts were exposed and made available with none of the profile owners being any the wiser it goes without saying that Facebook failed by not adhering to plain and simple business ethics. Facebook is considered a virtual home by many folks today and handing over virtual data about people would translate in the physical world to plundering one’s home and selling the goods to the highest bidder with the home’s owner none the wiser.
Given this it is heartening to see that several people have vowed to delete Facebook and never use it. The world would certainly be better off without Facebook.

2)Crapware
Most recently it came to light that Facebook has inked deals with smartphone manufacturers such as Samsung to allow Facebook to come pre-installed on mobile phones without giving users the ability to delete the Facebook app. It makes sense if an app which is highly essential to human life can’t be deleted but Facebook is certainly not such an app. Such business tactics are deplorable to say the least and if you look at the bigger picture are desperate attempts by an insecure organization trying to hang on to dear life. If Facebook is dying then there cannot be a clearer indication than this act of dishing out the app as a pre-installed, undeleteable version.

3)Insecure APIs
If you thought the Cambridge Analytica scandal was the last you would be surely mistaken. In December 2018, there were reports of private photos being exposed and these were confirmed by Facebook. If you thought you were very secure by setting your Facebook privacy settings to a strict mode think again. It has been reported time and again how the data of billions of users has been made available to many Facebook employees with little to no controls. In fact it is mandated at the highest levels in Facebook to steal the private data of individuals and distribute these god knows where.

4)Psychological impact
Several early investors and former Zuckerberg associates have now started coming out with what they feel are the deleterious effects of Facebook usage on the mental state of users. A whole generation of individuals define their lives around Facebook and constantly seek approval from a wider audience via Facebook to justify their earthly existence.
Today’s interactions are mostly virtual with youngsters and other users of Facebook becoming socially dysfunctional. An approval seeking bunch of Facebook addicts is no good for society and unless serious steps are taken to make a clean break from Facebook this addiction will only have a knock-on effect where the very fabric of society and relationships would be dangerously defined by Facebook.
Society as we knew it would cease to exist.

Given these egregious abuses by Facebook it stands to reason that the more astute members of society would be maintaining a safe distance if not completely removing Facebook from their lives. So do you still want to be advertising your business via a portal which is evil incarnate or do you think you would be better served by setting up your own website.