Apparently BREXIT happened today and I missed it.
You did too! - I am not surprised. What is stranger is that I don't live under english law either. I am no longer covered by European law - I am living under american law now. Actually we brits are not the only ones who don't live in Europe as I understand that a lot of Europeans live under american law.
Facebook decide to take 1.5 BILLION users out of the protection of European privacy law and moved them to America. Many in Europe believe there is a much less tough approach to Facebook and their use of our data as a product. European GDPR is going to make some of Facebook's current business practices targets for investigation so they have moved privacy from Ireland to California.
In a cutting piece UK paper the Guardian seemed to suggest that the "spirit of the company" so eloquently put to congress last week by Mark Z is not matched by his actions. Click here for the full story
As a strategy the facebook team continue their drive towards a brick wall faster and faster with their eyes closed.
Next week more revelations will most likely appear as the next Cambridge Analytica witness does the rounds. This latest action, will move the needle a little further towards the emotional tipping point of disengagement with the brand.
As some of the more horrifying stories come out over the coming weeks Facebook has put a very big strain of their relationship with us Europeans. Some of these story relate to cyberbullying on a global industrial scale of vulnerable people with horrific images and videos. In time some of these actions will be regarded as new kind of war crimes. Don't misunderstand I am not saying facebook did it but their platform was used if the testimony is believed.
This may be the beginning of a defining moment about the future of privacy.This really is becoming like a badly made Hitchcock movie. The more steps they take to hide the body the deeper into jeopardy they move. Considering the amount of emotional data they have access to they seem rather clueless about our feelings. Maybe they should come to one of our wonderful emotion clases. I can't help but wonder what their trustpilot score will look like in 3 months.
What annoys about all of this - if you are listening Mr Zuckerberg is that you have a unique once in a generation opportunity to act as a role model of what a better person might be in this situation but you might as well be the CEO of United Airlines for all the style you have shown.
I shall console myself with a couple of facts. First they will screw up - if organisations behave like this over European law then they will do the same with Californian law. It's not the difficulty of any set of laws it is the fact they think that they really are above them. So second fact - when they screw up (and they will) 1.5 billion of us can sue them in California so I guess we get half of the house
Mp