African Business: Will Facebook’s Troubles Cost Africans?

Facebook admits to collecting data on people who are not users, who did not agree to terms of service, for security reasons. Such collections may clash with efforts of the EU General Data Protection Regulation that aim to give people control over their data. “The GDPR may become the global model for regulating tech firms that collect personal data and earn income by selling or drawing profitable insights from them,” explains Rafiq Raji for African Business Magazine. “It is not their using of the data that is wrong but rather their doing so without the consent of the owners, who should also be able to profit if they so wish.” He analyzes how new controls might influence usage by Africans, about 12 percent of Facebook users, who do not yet regard their data as valuable. Raji concludes that increased social-media regulations or costs as well as egregious privacy intrusions by African authorities could reduce Facebook users in Africa. – YaleGlobal