Facebook COO: Want Privacy? You’ll Have To PAY!

Ok… I’m all kinds of torn on this.

On one hand, I hate Facebook with the fury of a thousand suns and want to keep hating everything it does.

On another, I understand that online businesses depend on ad-based revenue… and know where this is coming from.

With everything that has been happening with Facebook lately, people are now turning their sights on targeted advertising on the social media giant’s platform.

That’s not going away any time soon, says Sheryl Sandberg… unless you’re willing to pony up.

According to Daily Mail:

Facebook as we know it has always been a free product.

But as the social media giant’s massive data scandal has highlighted, a free Facebook membership has always come with a cost.

Put simply, the firm’s two billion-plus users have been able to use the site without paying in exchange for surrendering a wealth of personal information to advertisers.

According to Facebook COO Sheryl Sandberg, that business model is unlikely to change unless users are willing to pay up.

I’d pay for Facebook when hell freezes over. The only real reason I even have one anymore is to post COTR stuff to our page.

Facebook collects mountains of data on users, ranging from phone numbers and text messages, to addresses and other demographic information, down to your specific interests.

That information is then made available to a wide network of brands who can use it to serve up targeted advertisements both on and off Facebook.

Users can change their privacy settings, but in order to opt out of Facebook’s targeted advertising completely, they’ll have to pay, Sandberg said in an interview with NBC News on the Today Show.

‘We don’t have an opt-out at the highest level,’ Sandberg explained.

‘That would be a paid product,’ she said.

Sandberg added Facebook doesn’t sell user data but that ‘our service depends on your data’.

I’ve been on both sides of this.

I used to run marketing for a former employer. Basically, you tell Facebook you want your ad run for “so and so” kind of people… let’s say “women 18-45.”

They do the rest.

It never seemed particularly problematic to me.

It’s data harvesting by third-parties that raises flags.

Facebook CEO Mark Zuckerberg and Sandberg have been making the rounds in recent days to discuss what steps the firm is taking to regain users’ trust and prevent data from being misused in the future.

In the wake of the Cambridge Analytica scandal, which revealed at least 87 million members’ data had been harvested without their knowledge, more and more users have been rushing to protect their personal information.

Sandberg said Facebook is continuing to conduct an internal investigation into how Cambridge Analytica obtained the data.

In the process of the audit, she warned that more damaging information could be uncovered.

‘I’m not going to sit here and say that we’re not going to find more because we are,’ Sandberg explained.

Of course they are.

But hey. At least they’re being honest about it?

She also admitted that the firm should have been more proactive about notifying the public sooner.

‘We were given assurances by them years ago that they deleted the data,’ Sandberg said.

‘We should’ve followed up. That’s on us,’ she added. ‘We are trying to do a forensic audit to find out what they have.’

Yeeeeah. THAT is problematic.

…and it’s already costing Facebook.

Sandberg said in a separate interview with Bloomberg that several brands had ‘paused’ spending on digital advertising with Facebook for the time being.

However, Zuckerberg has reassured investors that the privacy scandal hasn’t negatively impacted its user count or ad business.

Huuuuh? So um, are they contradicting each other here? Or are they using that whole “paused” thing a little too liberally?

Earlier this week, Zuckerberg took the blame for the data row, saying only he could fix it.

He added that it will ‘take a few years to fix Facebook’s privacy issues.

‘I think we will dig through this hole, but it will take a few years. I wish I could solve all these issues in three months or six months.

‘But I just think the reality is that solving some of these questions is just going to take a longer period of time.’

After repeated calls from legislators and officials, Zuckerberg has agreed to testify on the matter next Tuesday and Wednesday during two US congressional hearings.

Hrmmm.

We’ll have to see how it all pans out.

For those of you who DO use Facebook frequently… would YOU pay to get rid of targeted ads within the platform?