Mark Zuckerberg has finally spoken.
After days of being seemingly MIA in the wake of the Cambridge Analytica controversy, Facebook's CEO finally weighed in on the matter. He may not have apologized, but he announced significant policy changes that will substantially change what developers can do with personal data.
Facebook says it will restrict the data developers can access if the app hasn't been vetted. Even if an app has been vetted, it will no longer be able to access users' data if they haven't used the app for three months.
And, for the the first time, the company will actually investigate apps that have abused its policies and take steps to notify users.
While many people are rightly questioning whether these changes are too little too late, it'd be wrong to write them off entirely.
First, it's important to note that nothing can undo the enormous amount of damage that's already been done. It's now more clear than ever that Facebook royally fucked up with regard to its platform policies.
The inherent vulnerabilities in Facebook's platform guidelines meant that one company could access millions and millions of people's data with alarming ease. That Cambridge Analytica nabbed data on 50 million people says less about their savvy and more about Facebook's shocking disregard for users' privacy.
This is not limited to Cambridge Analytica, by the way. You may be getting the most attention right now, but her tactics have been familiar for years, and Facebook has done nothing to reduce bad behavior. A company called Profile Engine managed to collect the details of 420 million Facebook users in 2011, according to the Wall Street Journal. Think about it - one company can get information about half a billion people.
No matter how dramatically Facebook changes its policies now, it simply can not change what already exists. Sure, it can prevent developers who have engaged in suspicious behavior in the past, but what if they have already sold it to a third party? What if the company no longer exists? What happened to the troops and collected the data they collect after they close the quiz application, Farmville knockoff or what is anyone guessing, but you bet he's still there somewhere.
When Facebook really makes a difference it is made by making people realize how bad this privacy nightmare is, which Zuckerberg said the company is planning to do. Facebook says it will audit and notify users who misused their data, including Cambridge Analytica.
Again, this will not "fix" anything, but it will go a long way towards raising awareness. For a long time, we agreed to hit the "Login using Facebook" without considering the consequences. If Facebook has a proactive role in this education, it may improve our digital health in the long term, even if it can not reverse past abuses.
What's more, we should not underestimate the importance of the strict developers guidelines proposed on Facebook. The entire Facebook business model relies on its ability to use our data to sell our ads. The more data you can provide to advertisers (and developers, for this matter) the more revenue they will generate. Closing this data set can significantly affect its net profit.
There are other more philosophical changes, such as providing bug fixes for applications that misuse data, and restricting Facebook login data. When the social network offers content to allow anyone to build anything, it is now playing a more active role in training developers.
To be clear, these are ostensibly clear guarantees Facebook should have been in line with all the time. (Just four years ago, the social network pledged to put people first, a claim that now seems deceptive at best.) We should not trust that Facebook will impose these new policies better than it did with its policies. Old.
But if the company can deliver on its promises of greater transparency and stricter controls to third parties (let's not underestimate the threat of looming threat to government regulation), Facebook will at least have more holes in its platform.
This may not be enough to gain any credibility for the company, but this is the place to start.
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