Reference no: EM133481067

Question

In early 2018, Facebook faced a firestorm of criticism when it was learned that a political data firm hired by Donald Trump's election campaign-Cambridge Analytica-had gained access to private data on as many as 87 million Facebook users. The Facebook profiles contained information on user identities, friend networks, "Likes," and other data that could be used to target American voters and influence their behavior. The data breach raised important questions about how the social media giant protects the huge amounts of user information it amasses and employs for its own market targeting activities. Facebook founder and CEO Mark Zuckerberg admitted that Facebook had made a "huge mistake" in not adequately protecting user data from exploitation. Said Zuckerberg, "The reality of a lot of this is, when you're building something like Facebook that is unprecedented in the world, there are going to be things that you mess up"

1. Is it wrong for Facebook and other companies to use customer profile information to market products and services?

2. Does it help customers or harm them? Explain your thinking.

3. Discuss other examples of companies targeting consumers by using consumer data collected online.