Since the establishment of Facebook 14 years ago, the scandal that happened to it over the last weekend is first of its kind. This made it lose $5 billion in 24 hours, making it its highest loss in its history.
Facebook stock fell to 8.1% on Monday after it was revealed that the Strategic Communications Laboratories (SLC) and data analytics firm Cambridge Analytical violated commitments as regards users’ data. Though both parties have been suspended and Facebook in its public release on Saturday, states that there had been no data breach and referred to the news spreading around as “completely false”, users still feel unsafe about their information on the social network.
In 2015, Facebook discovered an application by Psychology Professor Aleksandr Kogan at the University of Cambridge that gathered data with users’ permission violated its platform policies by passing the data on to SCL and Cambridge Analytica. In spite of the fact that the application has been expelled and Kogan and other parties with access to the information had authenticated destroying it, Facebook realized that not every bit of it might have been destroyed. This in one way has played again on Facebook. The misuse of a Facebook user’s data by a developer has brought the management into the public’s lime light, this has made Facebook users’ question the safety of their data.
Despite Facebook’s reassurance to both its investors and the public that significant improvement to prevent these violations is being carried out, its lose over the days has not proven that. Facebook as nevertheless taken its stance point that it is “constantly working to improve the safety and experience” for its users, despite all questions.