Near the end of March, Facebook was hit with a probe around 3rd party use of its data. More and more companies collect data to analyze which is a good thing. If you look towards the President of the US much of his decision making is based on gut feel; (as long as his instincts are good, it does not matter but consistency will not be part of the decision making); other companies made decisions based on accepted norms or what they thought accepted norms are; and now all companies have the ability to make decisions based on the information they collect and analyze. There is nothing wrong with that.

The next step is try to use the data to anticipate their customers to make the correct decision for whatever they might buy. In the world of politics – all parties know who can vote, they try to determine past voting habits and although the voting itself is secret, the intentions for many of the voters are generally known before hand. If someone is a member of the two big parties then it is safe to say they will likely vote for one of the two big parties. The trickier aspect is the swing voter? What will it take to ensure the person votes and will vote one way or another? The company Cambridge Analytica is one of many companies doing similar thing but they happen to be in the news because they tried to move the vote towards the President. The company paid Facebook a fee to use their data to focus on swing states to see patterns in what people liked and did not like. Whatever they liked, a message was tailored to them until the day they voted. If swing voters voted the way the buyers of the data wanted, then yes there was a secret ballot or democracy but people voted the right way. One would think the opposition will catch up for the midterms and the next election. So yes there is pressure on individuals but both sides do the same thing.

Linking to dividend paying stocks, Facebook is in the news because people were surprised it was so easily to access Facebook’s data. Every company collects data, some you give willingly, others not so but people think their information is somewhat protected. The Facebook news suggests all companies need policies on how the data on people is used outside of the company. Facebook stock went down, it will need to show what measures they are putting in place to satisfy people’s data concerns.

There are more questions than answers, till the next time – to raising questions.