Facebook Data Scandal To Have Little Effect On Revenue

Facebook might be dealing with the fallout from its data scandal, but the company doesn’t seem too worried about how all of the negative press will affect ad sales.

The social media site’s users largely haven’t changed their privacy settings in the weeks since the scandal came to light, Facebook vice president of global marketing solutions Carolyn Everson said at The Wall Street Journal CEO Council in London.

“We have not seen wild changes in behavior with people saying ‘I’m not going to share any data with Facebook anymore’,” Everson said.

Last month, a poll conducted by Reuters and Ipsos found that 86 percent of people have not changed their login credentials on Facebook, Twitter or other social media platforms, while 78 percent have not switched to “private mode” on their browser.

Facebook also doesn’t expect stricter privacy laws, which could lead consumers to opt out of targeted ads, to have an impact on its ad sales, added Everson.

“We are not anticipating major changes to our overall revenue and business model,” she said.

The company’s CEO Mark Zuckerberg testified in front of Congress this week about the scandal, facing questions on whether Facebook should be regulated, whether it had ignored fake news, whether it was to blame for Russia’s interference in the 2016 election, whether it was a monopoly, whether it should be considered a publisher and whether or not it could be trusted with all of the user data that it has collected over the last 14 years.

Everson stressed that the company is “deeply concerned” about “any time there is a breach of trust.” She also said that Facebook has made several changes to limit user data it shares with apps on the site.

In addition, she noted that Facebook’s expenses will go up due to its need to hire more people to monitor the abuse of its services. “Every executive is fully engaged” and “understands the importance of the moment,” she said.