After having been criticized for his to the Cambridge Analytica affair, in which he acknowledged his company鈥檚 responsibility in protecting user data but stopped short of actually apologizing, Facebook鈥檚 CEO Mark Zuckerberg took out full-page ads in several major newspapers on Sunday to make up for it. 鈥淲e have a responsibility to protect your information. If we can鈥檛, we don鈥檛 deserve it鈥, the ad opens, repeating a statement that Zuckerberg had already made last week. Only this time it leads to an actual apology. "This was a breach of trust, and I鈥檓 sorry we didn鈥檛 do more at the time鈥, the statement continues, referring to the harvesting of millions of Facebook users鈥 data in 2014 and the company鈥檚 idleness after learning about it.
While Facebook promises to take better care of its users鈥 data going forward, many commentators rightfully point out that what happened, collecting user data and using the information to target ads to people, is Facebook鈥檚 business model in a nutshell. 鈥淒ata misuse is a feature, not a bug鈥, Ethan Zuckerman , only in this case it wasn鈥檛 used to sell people the right shoes but to manipulate their political views and stir division.
As the following chart illustrates, Facebook has had tremendous success selling personalized ads over the past few years. In 2017, the company accounted for 20 percent of the global online advertising market, second only to Google, arguably the one company sitting on an even larger trove of personal data. It will be interesting to see how the current debate affects Facebook鈥檚 advertising business in the long run. The company鈥檚 shareholders are certainly worried: Facebook鈥檚 share price dropped nearly 20 percent over the past ten days.
Facebook's Growing Stature in the Online Ad Market
