The data harvesting scandal over Facebook's sharing of user
data with outside developers appears to be close to settlement. The
social network has reportedly agreed to pay $725M to settle claims
of affected class members (estimated class size: 250-280 million
users).
Why It Matters
Decision after decision in the EU and, increasingly, the US, is
chipping away at the blank wall that used to confront users who
wanted to know what happened to their data once it was collected by
a company. Facebook, Google, et al. can afford to keep fighting in
court and keep paying eye-popping fines. Most companies cannot.
Although the large social and advertising companies have a
vested interest in skirting or at least testing privacy laws, most
companies would do well to ignore their example. The better path
for companies that want to stay out of the regulatory cross-hairs?
Disclosure, transparency, and choice when dealing with users and
users' data. That applies to any downstream
