Editor’s Notes: Time to wake up to your own online data dump
Having spent the past decade pouring my every opinion and interest on toFacebook, I find myself outraged to discover that the data generated by my self-obsessed oversharing has been used to try and sell me things. Worse, political campaigns have been using my deep data footprint to try and target me with campaign messages. This is intolerable!
In fact, I feel no such outrage as I left Facebook in 2009 after growing uncomfortable with the amount of information they were gathering on me.
Admittedly, the final straw was getting a friend request from my uncle – which suggested to me that the site was no longer a relatively closed platform for swapping pictures of student nights out, and had in fact turned into something with a much broader reach. So I shut down my account and haven't looked back.
While it is of course unacceptable that unauthorised entities should harvest your data without permission, it’s also the case too many people have, for too long, clicked “agree” at the bottom of every terms and conditions form that’s popped up. “Yes, do what you want with me, as long as I get to use that photo filter or build my virtual farmyard…”
Apps request permission to access your contact book, your microphone, your photos, your location, and all too often people agree without a moment’s hesitation.
I’ve long thought that individuals should have control (and economic rights) over their data, but in the absence of such arrangements finding yourself a marketable commodity is the literal price you’ve paid for taking all those quizzes and acquiescing to all those app requests.
The data breach on the scale alleged to have been carried out by Cambridge Analytica has forced us to wake up to the consequences of our online data dump, and that’s no bad thing.
With friend like these
Jeremy Corbyn has taken a lot of stick for his bizarre reluctance to agree with everyone else and lay the blame for the Salisbury attack on Vladimir Putin.
His defenders say it’s outrageous to suggest that the Labour leader is too soft on anti-western autocracies, and it was in response to such claims that I posted some images on Twitter of Corbyn with his arm around a beaming Hugo Chavez; speaking in front of communist flags; appearing on Iran’s Press TV; and addressing a Cuba Solidarity event.
His fans reacted by sending me pictures of the Queen meeting Saudi royals – but there’s an obvious difference between heads of state engaged in diplomacy and the activities of Corbyn, which came about purely as a result of his own decisions to cosy up to, well, anti-western autocrats.
And by the way, who was first out of the block to congratulate Putin on his election victory? Venezuela and Cuba of course, countries that have long been close to Corbyn’s heart. If the Lenin cap fits…
Tipple tweet
I’ve noted before how much more interesting Xavier Rolet’s tweets have become since he left his position as chief executive of the London Stock Exchange.
This week he’s called it a safe bet “that there will be a single global currency in the fullness of time…Whether it will be Bitcoin is another story”.
The keen wine maker was also pleased to note a Credit Suisse study which identified fine wine as the second best-performing asset class after equities. Cheers!
Back to basics
Even before the Facebook data scandal, the marketing world was increasingly sceptical of the power, accuracy and reliability of digital advertising.
City heavyweight Roger Parry has a new book coming out in which he seeks to make the case for “rediscovering the value of traditional ideas in a digital world” – a timely addition to the boardroom library.
Parry doesn’t advocate abandoning the digital realm but says that as online giants start to act more like traditional publishers, traditional marketing ideas can come back to the fore.