Ok, What Did Facebook (NASDAQ:FB) Do This Time?
Near the end of November the United Kingdom’s Parliament seized nearly 200 pages of internal Facebook documents from the company Six4Three, an app developer, who had acquired the documents while in the midst of an ongoing suit against the social media tycoon.
These pages revealed the method used by Facebook to make money off their user’s data, and the way they attempted to protect that data from competitors. For instance, Facebook had the means to ‘whitelist’ app developers that posed no risk to Facebook, giving those developers our private information, for a fee of course. These companies include, but are not limited to, Airbnb and Netlfix.
The Parliament committee chair responsible for publishing the documents, Damian Collins, claims that those documents “raised important questions about how Facebook treats users’ data, their policies for working with app developers, and how they exercise their dominant position in the social media market.”
Rally? What Rally? Bad News Slashes any Hope Facebook Had for Recovery
The market is once more lit up by all of Facebook’s red candles this week. Despite its $133 price point support, the onslaught of bad news just might be enough to send Facebook careening further into bear country.
The downward trend of the market has been so severe as of late it has wiped out not one but two years worth of gains. That, combined with concerns over overvalued FANG stocks and a possible recession have left people unwilling to invest in Facebook, even in the face of these radical lows.
Bears are having a grand old time shorting Facebook, and other Fang stocks in the meantime. Ihor Dusaniwsky of S3 Partners made the observation that short sellers banked nearly $1 Billion this year due to short positions.
Here’s What Wasn’t In the Facebook Documents
There was no bit of information so damning that it could cause another $100 Billion spiral downwards for Facebook. The social media tycoon managed to partially claw its way out of the hole these documents dug for the company, suggesting that it is possible the dust may have finally settled over Facebook.
There’s logic to back up that theory. People seem to have become apathetic to the news that their data is no longer private. The “news” that Facebook is selling user data no longer has the impact it once would have had.
And technically, Facebook hasn’t actually done anything illegal. Yes the company is treating our data like a commodity to be bought and sold, but there’s probably something in the Terms and Agreements that no one reads stating that we’re fine with them doing just that.
In a bizarre twist, one might consider user data as safer with Facebook than any other social media platform, as they guard it with the ferocity of a dragon guarding their hoard. It was be no small feat for a competitor to get their hands on our information.
In light of all this, the document unveiling may be that light at the end of the tunnel the bulls have been hoping for.