APPALLING (and sleazy) as Cambridge Analytica’s behaviour is, or was, I am puzzled by the hysteria over Facebook.
Not being a teenager or someone who thinks food needs to be photographed for posterity before it can be digested, I have never had an account. However, even a Luddite like me finds it odd that anyone using Facebook thought their data was not being harvested. Exposing the guts of your life online and expecting that a free-to-use platform is not gleaning something is like eating burgers six times a day and being surprised you get fat, or smoking and being surprised that you end up with lung cancer.
Amanda Baker
Edinburgh
A FEW years ago my wife decided to register with Facebook. I was amazed that she was immediately greeted by a galaxy of possible friends. What particularly amazed me was that most of them were professional colleagues of mine. I have never used any social media sites, but clearly I am somewhere in their systems.
There are better ways of keeping in touch with friends, and informing the world at large of your opinions.
Robert Mitchell
Stirling
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Callum Baird, Editor of The National
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