Page 24 - ARUBA TODAY
P. 24
A24
TECHNOLOGYFriday 23 March 2018
Breaking up with Facebook? It's harder than it looks
By BARBARA ORTUTAY This Jan. 17, 2017, file photo shows a Facebook logo being displayed in a start-up companies was a way to recover these
NEW YORK (AP) — Face- gathering at Paris' Station F, in Paris. photos, I would deacti-
book's latest privacy scan- vate immediately," Daniel
dal, involving Trump cam- Associated Press Schwartz, who lives in At-
paign consultants who lanta, said in an email.
allegedly stole data on tens high-flying stock since Mon- "It's more serious economi- Facebook ID. People eager to delete
of millions of users in order day. Some of that reflects cally, politically, financially It's a pain, he said, "but not their profiles may find un-
to influence elections, has fear that changes in Face- and will require a more ro- the end of the world." And expected problems that
some people reconsidering book's business will hurt bust response in order to re- because he is bothered by point to how integral Face-
their relationship status with profits or that advertisers gain users' trust," said Steve Facebook's "ham-handed" book is to many activities,
the social network.There's and users will sour on the Jones, a professor of com- response to recent prob- said Ifeoma Ajunwa, a pro-
just one problem: There isn't social network. munications at the Univer- lems, the inconvenience is fessor of organizational be-
much of anywhere else to The furor over Cambridge sity of Illinois at Chicago. worth it. havior at Cornell University.
go. Analytica, the data min- Yet leaving Facebook, like For other users looking "It is getting more and more
Facebook has weathered ing firm accused of stealing ending a long marriage, to leave, it can feel as if difficult for people to de-
many such blow-ups be- Facebook data, follows a isn't remotely simple. Start- there are no real alterna- lete Facebook, since it's not
fore and is used to apolo- bad year in which Face- ing with the little things. tives. Twitter? Too flighty, just as a social media plat-
gizing and moving on. But book acknowledged help- Arvind Rajan, a tech ex- too public. Instagram? form but also almost like a
the stakes are bigger this ing spread fake news and ecutive from San Francisco Whoops, owned by Face- meeting square," she said.
time. propaganda from Russian who deactivated his ac- book. Snapchat? Please, Parents could soon real-
Regulatory authorities are agents. It also comes less count on Monday, sud- unless you're under 25 — in ize that their child's soccer
starting to focus on the than three months after denly discovered he needs which case you're prob- schedule with games and
data misappropriation, trig- CEO Mark Zuckerberg told to create new usernames ably not on Facebook to pickup times is only on a
gering a 9 percent decline the world that he would and passwords for a vari- begin with. Facebook page, for ex-
in Facebook's normally devote the year to fixing ety of apps and websites. Facebook connects 2.2 bil- ample. Many businesses
Facebook. Instead, things That's because he previ- lion users and a host of com- also schedule meetings via
ROOMS FOR RENT per night in seem to be getting worse. ously logged in with his munities that have sprung Facebook. "It's more and
the Center of Aruba with private up on its network. No other more difficult for people
bedroom, WIFI, TV by Cable company can match the to feel plugged in if you're
and Private Parking. breadth or depth of these not on Facebook," Ajunwa
Since Usd .30 per night. connections — thanks in said. There are no signs, so
whatsapp 5600312 part to Facebook's procliv- far, that users are leaving
Email: ity for squashing or swallow- in droves — and advertis-
lasaresidence@gmail.com ing up its competition. ers go where the eyeballs
But it is precisely in Face- are, so they aren't leaving
book's interest to make us- either. Research firm eMar-
ers feel Facebook is the keter hasn't changed its es-
only place to connect timate that worldwide ad
with others. Where else will spending on Facebook will
grandmothers see photos climb 22 percent this year
of their far-flung grandkids? to nearly $49 billion.
How will new mothers con- Still, if "Facebook were
nect to other parents also forced to change the way
up at 4 a.m. with a new- it uses data or the way its
born? ad products work, then
"My only hesitation is that advertisers may become
there are hundreds of pic- less enamored with it," said
tures posted over 13 years Debra Aho Williamson, an
of my life that I do not want analyst with the firm.
to lose access to. If there Not surprisingly, Facebook
doesn't make it easy to
leave. To permanently de-
lete your account, you
need to make a request to
the company. The process
can take several days, and
if you log in during this time,
your request will be can-
celed. It can take up to 90
days to delete everything.
There's a less permanent
way to leave, deactiva-
tion, which hides your pro-
file from everyone but lets
you return if you change
your mind.
Lili Orozco, a 28-year-old
office manager for her
family's heating and cool-
ing company in Watkins-
ville, Georgia, deleted her
account in December.q
