Subscribe: Apple Podcasts | Android | RSS
In late January, Facebook launched a PR initiative that, on its face, appeared intended to reframe in 2019 the issues that got away from them in 2018, AKA Facebook’s privacy offences that dominated the year since the Cambridge Analytica scandal became public. This week on Inside PR, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman and Joseph Thornley talk about this first phase of what by late February was unmistakably a concerted effort by Facebook to reframe the issues swirling around it.
Martin doesn’t buy Facebook’s argument that we are getting Facebook’s service for free? Not for a second. We’re paying — and the currency is our data. Gini argues that we are the product when it comes to social media. However, she accepts Facebook’s argument that they are not selling our data. Instead, she focuses on the need for each of us to make our own calculation about whether what we receive is a fair exchange for our attention and what Facebook learns about us. And Joe? Well he’s not buying Facebook’s arguments that they don’t sell our data. They do sell the intelligence and insight that comes from possessing our data. And, as far as he’s concerned that makes them “Data Launderers,” the digital equivalent of money launderers.
Martin picks up on this and says that we can see Facebook as not necessarily selling the data, but being the agent by which our data is used and obtains the value of using it. And they can do this because they are so big. Perhaps too big. And, says Martin, all you have to do is look at what Facebook is doing with WhatsApp, Facebook and Instagram — rolling up the data each has about us. Different data from what we view as different platforms gives them an even more granular portrait of us that they can draw on to the benefit of advertisers. What of the trust we established with these platforms when they gave us the reassurance of remaining discrete and protecting us from being rolled into an even bigger data bank?
Gini brings it back to a pragmatic reality. Facebook has become so effective, so pervasive, so dominant, can an advertiser ignore them? And that leads us to accept their assertions of good intent.
Linkworthy
- Understanding Facebook’s Business Model, Mark Zuckerberg
- What Kind of Internet Do We Want?, Sheryl Sandberg
- A Discussion with Nick Clegg
- The Facts About Facebook (paywall), Mark Zuckerberg
- An Anti-Facebook Manifesto, by an Early Facebook Investor, book review by Tom Bissell
- The Digital Winter Turns Apocalyptic, Alex Pareene
Subscribe to the Inside PR podcast
We’re trying to be wherever you want us to be. So, you can subscribe to Inside PR on the most popular podcast apps.
- Subscribe to Inside PR on Apple Podcasts
- Subscribe to Inside PR on Spotify
- Subscribe to Inside PR on Google Play
It’s your turn.
We’d love to know what you think about the topics we discussed as well as your suggestions for questions you’d like answered or topics for future shows.
- Leave a comment on the Inside PR Facebook group or the FIR Podcast Network Facebook group,
- Send us an email or an audio comment to [email protected],
- Interact with us on Twitter. We’re @inside_pr or connect directly with Gini Dietrich, Joseph Thornley, and Martin Waxman.
- And, of course, you always can leave a comment below this post.
Please rate us on Apple Podcasts
We hope you like the podcast as much as we like making it for you. If you do, we have a favor to ask: If you like this podcast, please rate us on Apple Podcasts.
Thank you to the people behind Inside PR.
Our theme music was created by Damon de Szegheo; Roger Dey is our announcer. Inside PR is produced by Joseph Thornley.
Data Laundering the Facebook Way – Inside PR 535 by Joseph Thornley, Gini Dietrich, Martin Waxman is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-ShareAlike 4.0 International License.