If you haven’t had a chance to watch the latest episode of the Gestalt IT Rundown that I do with my co-workers every Wednesday, make sure you check this one out. Because it’s the end of the year it’s customary to do all kinds of fun wrap up stories. This episode focused on what we all thought was the biggest story of the year. For me, it was the way that Facebook completely trashed our privacy. And worse yet, I don’t see a way for this to get resolved any time soon. Because of the difference between assets and liabilities.

Contact The Asset

It’s no secret that Facebook knows a ton about us. We tell it all kinds of things every day we’re logged into the platform. We fill out our user profiles with all kinds of interesting details. We click Like buttons everywhere, including the one for the Gestalt IT Rundown. Facebook then keeps all the data somewhere.

But Facebook is collecting more data than that. They track where our mouse cursors are in the desktop when we’re logged in. They track the amount of time we spend with the mobile app open. They track information in the background. And they collect all of this secret data and they store it somewhere as well.

This data allows them to build an amazingly accurate picture of who we are. And that kind of picture is extremely valuable to the right people. At first, I thought it might be the advertisers that crave this kind of data. Advertisers are the people that want to know exactly who is watching their programs. The more data they have about demographics the better they can tailor the message. We’ve already seen that with specific kinds of targeted posts on Facebook.

But the people that really salivate over this kind of data live in the shadows. They look at the data as a way to offer new kinds of services. Don’t just sell people things. Make them think differently. Change their opinions about products or ideas without them even realizing it. The really dark and twisted stuff. Like propaganda on a whole new scale. Enabled by the fact that we have all the data we could ever want on someone without even needing to steal it from them.

The problem with Facebook collecting all this data about us is that it’s an asset. It’s not too dissimilar from an older person keeping all their money under a mattress. We scoff at that person because a mattress is a terrible place to keep money. It’s not safe. And a bank will pay you keep your money there, right?

On the flip side, depending on the age of that person, they may not believe that banks are safe. Before FDIC, there was no guarantee your money would be repaid in a pinch. And if the bank goes out of business you can’t get your investment back. For a person that lived through the Great Depression that had to endure bank holidays and the like, keeping your asset under a mattress is way safer than giving it to someone else.

As an aside here, remember that banks don’t like leaving your money laying around either. If you deposit money in a bank, they take that money and invest it in other places. They put the money to work for them making money. The interest that you get paid for savings accounts and the like is just a small bonus to encourage you to keep your money in the bank and not to pull it out. That’s why they even have big disclaimers saying that your money may not be available to withdraw at a moment’s notice. Because if you do decide to get all of your money out of the bank at once, they need to go find the money to give you.

Now, let’s examine our data. Or, at least the data that Facebook has been storing on us. How do you think Facebook looks at that data? Do you believe they want to keep it under the mattress where it’s safe from the outside world? Do you think that Facebook wants to keep all these information locked in a vault somewhere where no one can get to it?

Or perhaps Facebook looks at your data as an asset like a bank does. Instead of keeping it around and letting it sit fallow they’d rather put it to work. That’s the nature of a valuable asset. To the average person, their privacy is one of the most important parts of their lives. To Facebook, your privacy is simply an asset. It can either sit by itself and make them nothing. Or it can be put to use by Facebook or third-party companies to make more money from the things that they can do with good data sources. To believe that a company like Facebook has your best interests at heart when it comes to privacy is not a good bet to make.

Would I Lie-ability To You?

In fact, the only thing that can make Facebook really sit up and pay attention is if that asset they have farmed out and working for them were to suddenly become a liability for some reason. Liabilities are a problem for companies because they are the exact opposite of making money. They cost money. Just as the grandmother in the above example sees an insolvent bank as a liability, so too would someone see a bad asset as a possible exposure.

Liabilities are a problem. Anything that can be an exposure is an issue for company, especially one with investors that like to get dividends. Any reduction in profit equals a loss. Liabilities on a balance sheet are giant red flags for anyone taking a close look at the operations of a business.

Turning Facebook’s data assets into a liability is the only way to make them sit up and realize that what they’re doing is wrong. Selling access to our data to anyone that wants it is a horrible idea. But it won’t stop until there is some way to make them pay through he nose for screwing up. Up until this year, that was a long shot at best. Most fines were in the thousands of dollars range, whereas most companies would pay millions for access to data. A carefully crafted statement admitting no fault after the exposure was uncovered means that Facebook and the offending company get away without a black mark and get to pocket all their gains.

The European GDPR law is a great step in the right direction. It clearly spells out what has to happen to keep a person’s data safe. That eliminates wiggle room in the laws. It also puts a stiff fine in place to ensure that any violations can be compounded quickly to drain a company and turn data into a liability instead of an asset. There are moves in the US to introduce legislation similar to GDPR, either at the federal level or in individual states like California, the location of Facebook’s headquarters.

That’s not to say that these laws are going to get it right every time. There are people out there that live to find ways to turn liabilities into assets. They want to find ways around the laws and make it so that they can continue to take their assets and make money from them even if the possibility of exposure is high. It’s one thing when that exposure is the money of people that invested in them. It’s another thing entirely when it’s personally identifiable information (PII) or protected information about people. We’re not imaginary money. We live and breath and exist long past losses. And trying to get our life back on track after an exposure is not easy for sure.

Tom’s Take

If I sound grumpy, it’s because I am tired of this mess. When I was researching my discussion for the Gestalt IT Rundown I simply Googled “Facebook data breach 2018” looking for examples that weren’t Cambridge Analytica. The number was more than it should have been. We cry about Target and Equifax and many other exposures that have happened in the last five years, but we also punish those companies by not doing business with them or moving our information elsewhere. Facebook has everyone hooked. We share photos on Facebook. We RSVP to events on Facebook. And we talk to people on Facebook as much or more than we do on the phone. That kind of reach requires a company to be more careful with who has access to our data. And if the solution is building the world’s biggest mattress to keep it all safe put me down for a set of box springs.