Ad agency CEO criticises Facebook for data sharing

After news broke that Facebook has been sharing more customer data than previously disclosed, a CEO of a global ad agency called out the tech giant for its “egregious behaviour”.
Mat Baxter, Global CEO of Inspired, published a message via his LinkedIn account that read: “It’s about time we take a collective stand against the egregious behavior of Facebook. Every time these sorts of stories surface they assure us that they are “trying harder”… enough is enough. I will be advising clients to stay off the platform entirely – hopefully, when they feel the pain of lost advertising dollars things might just change.”
The comments were made in the aftermath of a New York Times report that found Facebook had shared more user data than previously disclosed with the likes of Apple, Amazon, Bing, Netflix and Spotify.
Facebook quickly responded to the New York Times report, defending itself and claiming it has done nothing wrong. A story on the company’s news blog read: “Today, we’re facing questions about whether Facebook gave large tech companies access to people’s information and, if so, why we did this.
“To put it simply, this work was about helping people do two things. First, people could access their Facebook accounts or specific Facebook features on devices and platforms built by other companies like Apple, Amazon, Blackberry and Yahoo. These are known as integration partners. Second, people could have more social experiences – like seeing recommendations from their Facebook friends – on other popular apps and websites, like Netflix, The New York Times, Pandora and Spotify.
“To be clear: none of these partnerships or features gave companies access to information without people’s permission, nor did they violate our 2012 settlement with the FTC.”
At this stage, it appears that the bulk of marketers look set to stick with Facebook. That said, if more and more data breaches emerge, we may see agencies move away from the tech giant in an attempt to shield their reputation.