Face book has a lot of data, gathered over the years, on its computers. According to youngest son, there was an undocumented, but not secret, interface to the public internet. He say he used it himself to conduct searches for stuff that interested him (space travel, fusion power). He tells me this is the interface Cambridge Analytics used to access those fifty million Facebook user's data. He says that Facebook wised up and closed that interface quite recently. As well they might, Facebook's business model is built around selling their data, not giving it away free to savvy hackers.
There has been talk about regulating Facebook and its ilk. I frankly cannot think of any simple enforceable regulations that would do anything useful. Far as I am concerned, the free enterprise system is perfectly capable of shaping up Facebook. If Facebook offends enough users, who then leave Facebook, Facebook will loose money. They won't be able to charge as much for ads and data. That oughta be enough incentive to shape 'em up.
I use Facebook, but only to exchange chit chat with old school friends, family, and the neighbors, and to post photo's of my children, grandchildren, the scenery, the weather, my model railroad, and my cat. I expect that only my Facebook friends can see my posts, but it doesn't bother me much that anybody can see them. They are all fairly good photos, they are lovable children, and its a very nice cat.
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