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A Marketing-Ethics Professor Grades Facebook’s Data Policy

4/21/2018

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by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

You’ve heard about Cambridge Analytica, data-sharing, the 2016 election, and Mark Zuckerberg’s two trips to Capitol Hill.  Rather than add one more opinion of what went wrong and why, I’d like to share something a few of Facebook’s two billion users might find even more helpful: an evaluation of the social media giant’s current data policy.
 
As an educator, I wasn’t eager to tackle another big ‘grading’ project (I have plenty of others right now), but after pouring over the firm’s privacy-related webpages, I’m glad I did.  I learned much in the process, and I believe there are several useful takeaways for others who have an interest in how Facebook manages our data.
 
Most of my analysis stems from Facebook’s Data Policy page, which describes at length the company’s approach to user privacy.  This page also contains links to a variety of other pages that unpack specific components of the policy.

Here’s my evaluation:
 
Readability:  "A"
We’ve all experienced contracts and terms of service that we can tell at a glance will be a ‘bear’ to get through, perhaps because of all capital letters or marathon paragraphs.  Facebook’s formatting is much more user-friendly, which may seem like a small thing, but if people avoid reading the policy, what good is it?
 
The policy features short paragraphs, many with three sentences or less, prefaced by bolded headings, which help readers locate specific information.  Likewise, the overall organization of material is clear and logical.  For instance, several main headings, set in a larger blue font, delineate sections for answering: “What kinds of information do we collect?”  “How do we use this information?” and “How is this information shared?”
 
Clarity:  "A"
Organization and formatting are helpful, but they’re meaningless if we can’t interpret what’s said.  Most of us have experienced the mind-numbing legalese that seems as if it were written to confuse and confound.  Fortunately, Facebook uses language that’s much more accessible, and if technical terms that some users may not recognize are needed, the company explains the concepts.  For example, here’s how the firm describes cookies:
 
“Cookies are small pieces of text used to store information on web browsers. Cookies are used to store and receive identifiers and other information on computers, phones, and other devices. Other technologies, including data we store on your web browser or device, identifiers associated with your device, and other software, are used for similar purposes. In this policy, we refer to all of these technologies as ‘cookies.’”
 
Sometimes, however, even a clear explanation is not enough.  In those instances, Facebook goes a step further by providing specific examples like the following one to describe how it shares data with third parties:

“We may tell an advertiser how its ads performed, or how many people viewed their ads or installed an app after seeing an ad, or provide non-personally identifying demographic information (such as 25 year old female, in Madrid, who likes software engineering) [emphasis added] to these partners to help them understand their audience or customers, but only after the advertiser has agreed to abide by our advertiser guidelines.”

Ease of Use:  "A-"
Given that Facebook’s business model is based almost entirely on managing user-provided information, it’s data policy is inherently complex, which makes it all-the-more important that users can easily find the information they want and make changes to fit their personal preferences.
 
The company facilitates those objectives by making ample use of hyperlinks to other pages, like this one for  advertising preferences, which allows users to better understand and manage the ads they see. Facebook also has programmed a decent amount of flexibility into data-related settings.  Similar to the previous example, users also can determine the specific information they’d like to keep private vs. make public through means such as managing their Public Profile and using the Activity Log tool.
 
In addition, Facebook allows users to delete their accounts whenever they wish, or deactivate them temporarily.  With those options, however, comes an important caveat from the company: “Keep in mind that information that others have shared about you is not part of your account and will not be deleted when you delete your account.”
 
Facebook’s ease of use slips somewhat when it comes to reporting others’ objectionable content.  On its webpage “Details on Social Reporting,” the company says, “We encourage people on Facebook to use the report buttons located across our site [emphasis added] to let us know if they find content that violates our terms of use so we can take it down.”  However, no such buttons are readily visible.  Instead, the intended option for such censure appears to lie under each post’s three-dot drop-down menu under the somewhat ambiguous selection “Give feedback about this post.”
 
Transparency and Thoroughness:  "B+"
Brevity is a virtue, but that benefit is lost if there’s not enough information to adequately communicate a message.  In many ways, Facebook does a good job detailing its multifaceted data policy.  For instance, it identifies each type of third party with which it shares information about its users: advertising, measurement and analytics services, vendors, service providers, and other partners.  Facebook also broadly describes the kinds of information these third parties receive and how they use it.
 
Along the way, the company provides links to other pages that contain more detailed information, such as advertiser guidelines, the kinds of information it collects, and how users can control the types of ads they receive.   In addition, Facebook offers in its Help Center a “Security Checkup” and a series of security tips with links to additional resources such as password protection and antivirus software for Mac and Windows operating systems.  Unfortunately, the Microsoft link is broken.
 
How could Facebook be more thorough and transparent?  The company states:
 
“We do not share information that personally identifies you (personally identifiable information is information like name or email address that can by itself be used to contact you or identifies who you are) with advertising, measurement or analytics partners unless you give us permission [emphasis added].”
 
As a researcher, the notion that Facebook aggregates data and maintains individual users’ anonymity is reassuring.  As a Facebook user, however, I’d like more explanation for the final part of the above statement: “unless you give us permission.”  How exactly do we give Facebook permission to share “personally identifiable information,” where is it possible to view the permissions we have granted, and how can we rescind such permissions, if we want to do so?  Similarly, Facebook’s data policy states:
 
“We transfer information [emphasis added] to vendors, service providers, and other partners who globally support our business, such as providing technical infrastructure services, analyzing how our Services are used, measuring the effectiveness of ads and services, providing customer service, facilitating payments, or conducting academic research and surveys. These partners must adhere to strict confidentiality obligations [emphasis added] in a way that is consistent with this Data Policy and the agreements we enter into with them.”
 
“Transfer information” seems like another way of saying ‘share data,’ which is reminiscent of the Cambridge Analytica debacle.  Of course, Facebook adds that “these partners must adhere to strict confidentiality obligations,” but how exactly is that third-party confidentiality monitored and enforced?  Perhaps the answer is ‘above our pay grade’ as consumers; yet, it would be comforting to know that new and more effective standards for accountability are in place that will help to avoid a similar Cambridge Analytica breakdown. 
 
Conclusion
Along with the preceding assessment, it’s important to note three things:
 
1. We use Facebook for free.  Since users don’t pay for Facebook, the social media platform needs to cover its costs somehow.  Like most other media, it does so through advertising revenue.  Advertisers aren’t going to foot the bill, however, unless they know who they’re reaching, hence the need to share at least some user data.
 
2. The purpose of Facebook is to share information.  If we posted things on Facebook and no one ever saw them, we’d be upset.  The very reason we use the platform is to share information.  Granted, we may only want to share things with our friends or certain others, but in keeping with the prior point, ‘beggars can’t be choosers.’
 
3.  Users enjoy a better experience when Facebook utilizes their data.  Granted, we don’t want to be taken advantage of, but seeing ads for products we want or content related to topics we like are usually preferable to exposure to things that are of no interest to us.  Such customization is possible because of the data we provide.
 
As the preceding analysis has suggested, Facebook’s data policy isn’t perfect.  However, given the information-intensive nature of the company’s operations and the many different stakeholder groups who rely on that data, the company is doing a commendable job—one that warrants recognition as “Mindful Marketing.”


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Should Cars Drive Themselves?

4/6/2018

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by David Hagenbuch, founder of Mindful Marketing & author of Honorable Influence

It was around 10 pm on a Sunday evening in March.  Elaine Herzberg was walking her bike across N. Mill Avenue in Tempe, AZ, when a Volvo XC90 SUV traveling 40 mph struck and killed her.  Tragically, about 6,000 pedestrians a year become traffic fatalities.  Herzberg’s death, however, was different.  She was the first pedestrian killed by a self-driving car.

While driverless vehicles have been the subjects of dreams and experiments for almost a century, truly autonomous vehicles have been reality for only about a decade.  Google began its Waymo self-driving car program in 2009.  By 2012, its driverless vehicles had logged over 300,000 miles.  In 2015 came the “world’s first fully self-driving ride on public roads,” which truly opened the door for autonomous vehicle accidents.
 
The first death due to an autonomous car occurred in 2017 when a 40-year-old Tesla driver, who was using the car’s “Autopilot” driver-assist system, crashed into a large truck that turned in front of it.  Investigators found that the system failed to distinguish the white truck from the bright sky.
 
More recently, in March 2018, a 38-year-old man died near Mountain View, CA when his Tesla Model X hit a concrete barrier.  The driver was also using the car’s Autopilot system, which “allows drivers to take their hands off the wheel for extended periods under certain conditions.”  Similar to the other Tesla crash, the system apparently failed to identify the divider.  Two other vehicles also were involved in the accident.
 
Such tragedies may make us ask: Should cars operate on their own?  Driving is a complicated activity that requires sharp mental and physical skills, as well as strong intuition, i.e., a clear sense of how to react, often in an instant.  Artificial intelligence and other ‘smart’ technology have gotten very good, but can we really trust computer code and CPUs to protect people from a complex collection of fast-moving metal?  Is it safe to hand over our keys to the cars themselves?
 
According to Business Insider, by the year 2020 there will be more than 10 million self-driving cars on U.S. roads.  That’s a significant number of vehicles making their own way, and a good guess is that number will continue to grow.  In fact, some predict that by 2030, one out of every four vehicles will be self-driving.
 
What’s driving the success of self-driving vehicles?  Compared to conventional cars, autonomous ones have several advantages, for instance:
  • More efficient operation, including optimized braking and accelerating
  • Lower emissions due to better driving and possibly fewer vehicles
  • More self-time: people can potentially do other things while they ride

There also are millions of people who can’t drive cars for various reasons including physical and cognitive limitations.  For such individuals, a self-driving car may be more than a simple convenience; it can be a life-changing tool.
 
But what about safety?  Surely none of these benefits is worth putting more lives at risk of auto accidents.  That would be true, except that greater safety is actually an advantage of autonomous cars.  According to BI Intelligence: “The biggest benefits of self-driving cars are that they will help to make roads safer and people's lives easier.”
 
Business Insider cites a KPMG estimate that in the United Kingdom alone, self-driving cars will save 2,500 lives over a period of about 16 years.  In the United States, autonomous vehicles could prevent 300,000 traffic fatalities per decade.

Such statistics may be hard to believe in light of the recent tragic headlines that prefaced this piece.  There are, however, two important points to consider when assessing autonomous vehicle safety:
 
1.  Self-driving cars are still in their infancy.  They’ve only been tested on real roads for a few years.  The technology that powers them will keep getting better and as improvements are made, the vehicles will become even safer.
 
2.  In most cases, technology does things much more efficiently and effectively than humans do.  Take, for instance, automated food production.  Machines make every Oreo, can of Coke, and Reese’s Cup virtually identical to the last one.  If we had to produce such items by hand, most of us would be lucky to make any two look similar.  Of course, driving occurs in a more open and unpredictable environment, but similar accuracy and reliability have already been applied to autonomous cars, with more advancements to come.  
 
It’s heartbreaking when lives are lost, especially due to accidents.  As such, it’s wise to be cautious with new and potentially dangerous technology that’s still being refined.  Although a few very unfortunate accidents have understandably garnered media attention, self-driving cars still promise to make our highways safer.  Those developing these vehicles responsibly are on the right side of the road, driving forward with “Mindful Marketing.”


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