Are Users Finally Wising Up to What They Share on Facebook?
*By Carlo Versano*
As Facebook tries to recover from what might be its worst security breach yet ー one in which the personal details of at least 50 million accounts were exposed ー users are wising up about what they share on the vast social network.
"People are getting a little bit smarter," Mashable deputy tech editor Michael Nuñez said.
Nuñez pointed out Monday in an interview on Cheddar that the breach, announced by Facebook on Friday, was "not their first, but it is their worst."
Facebook ($FB) is now at risk for a potential $1.6 billion fine from European regulators who have more latitude to penalize the company since the landmark GDPR law went into effect, according to the [Wall Street Journal](https://www.wsj.com/articles/facebook-faces-potential-1-63-billion-fine-in-europe-over-data-breach-1538330906?dlbk&te=1&nl=dealbook&emc=edit_dk_20181001).
But even that would be just a "slap on the wrist" for a company with a market cap of $474 billion, Nuñez said.
The more pressing question is whether these security hacks will cause users to rethink their relationship with Facebook altogether.
Indeed, that may already be happening. Facebook has gotten so large that its growth has started to decelerate. Perhaps more importantly, "a lot of young people are skipping Facebook entirely" and choosing to share content elsewhere, Nuñez said.
Luckily for CEO Mark Zuckerberg, many of the platforms users are choosing instead ー WhatsApp and Instagram, for example ー are owned by Facebook.
At this stage, Facebook's core product has more similarities to email, Nuñez said. With both tools, there's a learning curve, and users would be wise to apply the lesson of email writing to Facebook use: "You shouldn't share anything you don't want to be public."
For full interview [click here](https://cheddar.com/videos/50-million-affected-in-latest-facebook-scandal).
An independent watchdog within the IRS reports that while taxpayer services have vastly improved, the agency is still too slow to resolve identity theft cases. And National Taxpayer Advocate Erin Collins says those delays are “unconscionable.” Erin M. Collins said in the report released Wednesday that overall the 2024 filing season went smoothly, though IRS delays in resolving identity theft victim assistance cases are worsening. It took nearly 19 months to resolve self-reported identity theft cases as of January, and Wednesday's report states that now it takes 22 months to resolve these cases.
Amazon.com Inc. surpassed $2 trillion in market value for the first time in afternoon trading on Wednesday. The push higher for Amazon’s stock market valuation comes a little more than a week after Nvidia hit $3 trillion and briefly became the most valuable company on Wall Street. Nvidia’s chips are used to power many AI application and its valuation has soared as a result. Amazon has also been making big investments in AI as global interest has grown in the technology. Most of the company’s focus has been on business-focused products.
Climate change doesn’t just mean more extreme weather – it also leads to billions of dollars in lost productivity, tourism, and stresses infrastructure.
It’s an annual tradition: the Fed’s banking ‘stress test.’ A year after the regional banking crisis, there are good reasons to make sure they’re prepped.
Summer is upon us, which means weddings, trips overseas, and trips to see Taylor Swift. Avoid a “Cruel Summer” with these budget-friendly tips and tricks.
While Nvidia's meteoric rise led it to briefly dethrone Microsoft as the world's biggest public company, there's a lot more going on in this market than A.I.
