FACEBOOK’S PRIVACY CHANGES LEFT INFLUENCERS ON THE EDGE
If you’ve been watching the news lately, there are some pretty major things unfolding in our very eyes that involves Facebook, privacy, and marketing with influencers. Last March, a HUGE scandal blew up when a whistleblower revealed that the Trump political team hired Cambridge Analytica, a political data mining firm, that used user information to create targeted advertising that allegedly help him win his campaign. BIG WHOOP!
How did they do this? They bought collected information from someone who developed a personality quiz app on the site. This content single handedly mined data from 87 million people – without their knowledge or consent. Talk about a bad episode of House of Cards if you ask me. Zuck came on the hill personally to address the issue head on - sitting in front of a bunch of old politicians who are more or less confused and don’t even understand what the hell they are talking about. In a statement, Mark Zuckerberg vowed to crack down on the issues plaguing his platform – limiting the amount of access third-party developers have been taking advantage of for years and controlling information being distributed on the site.
For the most part, many people lauded the move. And I couldn’t agree more. It’s time we make our platforms safe from the creeps who’ll sway us to the dark side. *i.e TRUMP* But one question remains, how will this change in privacy policy impact influencers who stand to profit from the influence they wield in these platforms? Most people think that there will be little to no impact to the business of influence. However, some brands and influencers are already feeling the heat. One of Facebook’s properties, Instagram, has been the platform of choice for those who want to reach out to thousands or millions of people through our smartphone cameras. In a recent update last April 4, Instagram made some pretty big changes. The average instagrammer won’t notice a thing but those into marketing themselves or someone else are in for the fight of their ‘effin lives. Instagram plugged the holes into developer access. This means that third-party apps can no longer support businesses and people in tracking analytics or metrics. If you’re an influencer who does the math, you can no longer check if your followers are interacting with your post, analyzing your audience, and looking for relevant hashtags. 3rd party apps are now being cock-blocked and won’t be able to access data that makes them tick - rendering them useless. Although some functionality is still intact, there’s no question how new changes will be implemented even further as Facebook becomes smitten to dig themselves out of this scandal.
In this massive change, we’ll get to see more influencers ditching their personal Instagram accounts and going to transform theirs into business ones to do their work. Eventually, it could even become mandatory as influencers will be pressured to sell their data to advertisers and businesses who want to know if they are effective. For all of us who know the high stakes involved, we’re just going to see where this issue goes. But as far as Brittany Kaiser is concerned, one of Cambridge Analytica’s senior executives who blew the whistle on its practices, this data scandal may just be beginning to unfold. In an interview with Bustle, she has said that anybody can purchase data on individuals and use platforms like social media to do targeting. She said that “Anybody in the world can manipulate Americans if they want to, without working with an American company, because the data industry allows you to do that,” But right now, what we can do is to speculate, wait, grab a bowl of popcorn, and watch it all explode. Let’s hope it won’t be the Armageddon we’re fearing for.