Opinion: Is it time to #DeleteFacebook?

We’ve all thought about it at least once.

What if we could disconnect ourselves from the massive social media addiction network that is Facebook? Surely, we’d have more time for other, more productive activities. We wouldn’t get caught up in online drama or have constant targeted ads pushed toward us. Perhaps we’d leave our computer or phone and actually interact with people in real life.

The thought is nice, but the fact is Facebook has successfully engrained itself into its users’ lives. At its best, the platform is great for keeping up with family and friends as the years pass. At its worst, it’s like a sore you can’t stop picking at.

Cutting ties can seem so tempting.

In recent days, a scandal so large hit that it might cause some users to stop talking about it and actually take the leap off of Facebook.

At this point, you’ve probably read about the massive data breach related to the 2016 election. The New York Times reports London-based Cambridge Analytica used the private information of more than 50 million Facebook users without their permission. The firm reportedly bought the data in an attempt to influence voters in 2016.

How Cambridge Analytica was able to pull off this alleged breach has many up in arms – and rightfully so. Facebook officials say Cambridge purchased the data from an outside researcher, who claimed to be collecting information for academic reasons.

Facebook officials, however, maintain the incident was not a data breach. Rather, they allege University of Cambridge professor Aleksandr Kogan persuaded users to download his app, which asked for permission to grab their personal Facebook information. Kogan’s app also is said to have pulled information from users’ friends, as well. He is accused of selling that data to Cambridge Analytica in an unethical, but probably lucrative move.

In various blog posts, Facebook officials call Kogan a liar who violated the social media network’s terms of service.

“Although Kogan gained access to this information in a legitimate way and through the proper channels that governed all developers on Facebook at that time, he did not subsequently abide by our rules,” Facebook Deputy General Counsel Paul Grewal wrote in a post. “Aleksandr Kogan requested and gained access to information from users who chose to sign up to his app, and everyone involved gave their consent.”

However, according to the blog posts, only 270,000 people actually downloaded Kogan’s “thisisyourdigitallife” app. It’s extremely concerning then, that the breach appears to have reached such a massive scale. The company has since plugged that hole, now prohibiting developers from collecting copious amounts of information from users’ friends’ networks when a single user agrees to an app’s terms.

Grewal acknowledges the severity of the incident but stops short of having Facebook take the blame. CEO Mark Zuckerberg has since apologized, calling the incident “a major breach of trust.”

The problem is, whether we like it or not, Facebook knows a lot about us. The company stores our names and places of residence, our friends and family members, where we were and when, our political leanings, musical tastes and so much more.

When you stop to think about that, it’s actually pretty frightening on a Big Brother-type level. Worse, we all voluntarily give this information to Facebook.

Certainly, Zuckerberg and team have built a platform that very aptly encourages us to do so, but rarely do we stop and think about the potential consequences.

When scandals like this hit the news, we’re forced to think about whether we intended for our lives to ever be so wrapped up in the platform.

Enter #DeleteFacebook.

The trending hashtag is being used by many who realize the ramifications of sharing private information so freely online. Then there’s the people who deleted their profiles years ago saying, “I told you so.”

The breach and follow-up hashtag caused Facebook to take a substantial financial hit – at least in the short term. A report by Bloomberg found the company’s shares dropped to the tune of $43 billion in market capitalization in a single day. When it comes to those ebbs and flows, though, it’s important to remember how fickle the markets can be. A single recent tweet from reality star Kylie Jenner, for instance, erased more than $1 billion in Snapchat’s market value when she tweeted about the app’s redesign to her more than 24 million followers.

In the blog posts by Facebook’s Grewal, the executive indicated much has been done in recent years to address security issues and that the company is continuing to refine those processes.

It just comes down to whether you believe that’s true or not. Facebook must work to earn your trust. Its officials cannot be given the benefit of a doubt.

If the idea of #DeleteFacebook entices you, why not give it a try? Certainly, it’s easier said than done, but you can always come back. You might discover it’s something you really don’t need. Either way, it’s important to be cognizant of the information you share online. Don’t be surprised when it backfires if you aren’t paying attention.

Springfield Business Journal Web Producer Geoff Pickle can be reached at gpickle@sbj.net.