scorecardresearch
Tuesday, March 19, 2024
Support Our Journalism
HomeOpinionFacebook security breach exposes a crisis of faith

Facebook security breach exposes a crisis of faith

Follow Us :
Text Size:

It will be difficult for Facebook to regain the trust of its customers after it reported a security flaw that affected almost 50 million accounts. 

As in any relationship between people, once a company loses the trust of its customers, there is a long, lingering period of suspicion that the company will do something egregious again.

There is suspicion that greedy banks will take on too much risk again. That Chipotle will make customers sick again. And that Facebook Inc. is too creepy and irresponsible to be an unquestioned staple of daily life. Once trust is gone, it’s incredibly hard to win back and every misstep is magnified.

That is what is happening to Facebook on Friday after it reported it discovered a security flaw that potentially allowed attackers to hijack people’s Facebook accounts. The company said the flaw affected almost 50 million accounts, and Facebook logged 90 million people off their accounts as a safety measure. The company didn’t say whether anyone’s account had been hijacked by exploiting the security flaw it outlined.

At least based on the available information from Facebook, the company acted quickly and responsibly once it discovered the technical vulnerability. But again, it doesn’t matter. Facebook shares dropped more than 3 percent on the news, and it set off another round of news reports that reminded people about Cambridge Analytica, Russian propaganda, Myanmar violence and more. (Facebook lost more market value from the security flaw than Tesla lost on Friday after its CEO was sued by the government for securities fraud.)

To people already understandably weary of Facebook after two years of scandal, the combination of the words “Facebook” and “compromised data” are enough to bring up all the bad feelings about the company. This is what the loss of faith looks like, and it’s hard to imagine Facebook winning people back anytime soon. Everyone at Facebook may believe it’s unfair that the company is being criticized at every turn, but reality bites. – Bloomberg 

Subscribe to our channels on YouTube, Telegram & WhatsApp

Support Our Journalism

India needs fair, non-hyphenated and questioning journalism, packed with on-ground reporting. ThePrint – with exceptional reporters, columnists and editors – is doing just that.

Sustaining this needs support from wonderful readers like you.

Whether you live in India or overseas, you can take a paid subscription by clicking here.

Support Our Journalism

1 COMMENT

  1. Technology one doesn’t understand, but data security is something we should view with the utmost scepticism. Packets of Aadhaar data are being sold for a few hundred rupees each.

LEAVE A REPLY

Please enter your comment!
Please enter your name here

Most Popular