BusinessDay 13 April 2018

Friday 13 April 2018
BUSINESS DAY
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Facebook wants users to earn
money exposing data abuses
FRANK ELEANYA
Users on Facebook
can now
earn a reward
when they
identify and
report malicious platform
apps collecting data and
another person abusing it.
Facebook is calling it the
Data Abuse Bounty.
“We want to protect our
users’ data from malicious
abuse of trust,” the company
wrote in a blog post.
“This means protecting it
via finding and fixing security
vulnerabilities, but also
from third party companies
or apps buying or collecting
their data through other
means barred by our terms.
This program is to encourage
and reward people for
helping Facebook identify
and stop anyone involved
in this practice.”
On Monday, Facebook
revealed that about 271,469
data belonging to Nigerians
on Facebook, whose
friends would have installed
the ‘This is Your Digital
Life’ app, were exposed to
the Cambridge Analytica
data breach. Meanwhile, 78
Facebook users in Nigeria
installed the app on their
phone.
In a statement Business-
Day received, Facebook said
the disclosure is to encourage
people to manage the
apps they use.
“We already show people
what apps their accounts
are connected to and control
what data they have
permitted those apps to
use through app settings,” a
spokesperson for Facebook
said. “We are putting a link
at the top of people’s News
Stakeholders advocate single digit franchise funding
Franchise Business Development
Services
(FBDS) has made case
for the creation of access to
single digit franchise funding
to enable the development
and expansion of the critical
sub-sector of the economy.
This was a crucial takeaway
from the recent Franchise
Matchmaking Investment
forum recently held in
Lagos, the second of its kind
by FBDS –the pioneer franchise
consulting company in
Nigeria.
The event highlighted the
nitty-gritty of franchise investment
procedures, pointing
to the fact, if properly harnessed;
franchise businesses
have the potentials to create
Feeds to make sure that everyone
sees it. Furthermore,
it is important for us to tell
people if and how their data
may have been accessed via
This is Your Digital Life.”
Last week, the company
had revealed that the data
of about 87 million users on
its platform were harvested
without authorisation by
Cambridge Analytica (CA).
Users in the United States
accounted for over 70 million
(about 97 percent) of
the data breach while 16
million of the total number
of users affected came
from countries outside the
United States. The countries
listed were Philippines, UK,
Indonesia, United Kingdom,
Mexico, Canada, India,
Brazil, Vietnam and
Australia.
The press release from
Facebook does not say
whether Nigeria is part of
the remaining 16 million users
outside the United States
or that more than 87 million
could have been affected.
The company however
said it is taking numerous
measures.
“One of those being that
everyone globally on their
Facebook page will see an
alert leading them to the
apps setting where they
can review the apps they
have allowed to access their
data. Additionally, those
potentially impacted by CA
will also see the alert which
will then take them to see
what data might have been
shared,” Facebook noted.
Nigerians, who want to
find out whether their data
were shared by with Cambridge
Analytica, can look
out for a link named ‘protecting
your information’
link at the top of their news
Tundun Adreribigbe, COO, House of Tara speaking at the event, held in Lagos, recently.
over 500,000 new jobs in the
next four years in Nigeria.
The event featured sessions
by experts from the
industry who discussed exhaustively
on how to manage
a franchise and drive profit in
feed. Following that link,
users will be directed to a
section where they can see
which apps and websites
they have used Facebook
to log into, and remove any
they no longer want connected
to their account.
Above the link, users
who may have been affected
by the data scandal will
see the message: “We have
banned the website ‘This
is Your Digital Life,’ which
one of your friends used
Facebook to log into. We
did this because the website
may have misused some
of your Facebook information
by sharing it with a
company called Cambridge
Analytica.”
In addition, Facebook
has committed to inform
ever user on the platform
from 5pm on Monday,
whether they are among
the 87 million potential users
whose data was shared
with Cambridge Analytica.
The company also
suspended a data analytics
firm called Cubeyou
ahead of an investigation.
Facebook plans to look
into whether Cubeyou collected
data for academic
purposes and then used
it commercially, following
a very competitive business
economy.
Prospective corporate and
individual investors were
taken through the curriculum
by both the organizers and
the franchisors pitching for
a partnership with Cambridge
University in the
UK.
“We will review all legitimate
reports and respond
as quickly as possible
when we identify a
credible threat to people’s
information,” Collin
Greene, head of Product
Security, Facebook. “If we
confirm data abuse, we will
shut down the offending
app and take legal action
against the company selling
or buying the data,
if necessary. We will pay
the person who reported
the issue, and we will also
alert those we believe to be
affected.”
The company also said
it will reward people with
first-hand knowledge and
proof of cases where a Facebook
platform app collects
and transfers people’s data
to another party to be sold,
stolen or used for scams or
political influence.
“Just like the bug bounty
program, Facebook will reward
based on the impact
of each report. While there
is no maximum, high impact
bug reports have garnered
as much as $40,000
for people who bring them
to Facebook’s attention,”
prospective investors, on how
they can own their franchised
businesses at virtually no
business failure risks, while
gaining sufficient education
through the sessions, on
losses rather associated with
venturing into new business.
They pointed to such facts as
that franchises have only 5%
failure rate in South Africa,
while start-up businesses record
80% failure rate within
few years in Nigeria.
Chiagozie Nwizu, the
forum’s convener, said it
was part of FBDS’ measure,
to facilitate risk free venturing,
business sustainability,
growth of the enterprise sector
and attraction of Foreign
Direct Investments (FDIs) to
Only 17% customers intend buying
from ecommerce site on first visit
FRANK ELEANYA
Every customer that
visits an ecommerce
website for the first
time did not have buying as
their primary purpose, says
the 2018 Reimagining Commerce
study from Episerver.
The purpose of the first
visit always varies. The report
showed that only 17
percent of customers say they
planned to buy something
the first time they visited the
ecommerce website.
Half of shoppers (50%) see
a product they want to buy and
immediately do so. The rest
of the half start by browsing
sections including sales items
(19%), shipping information
(payment information) (8%),
payment information (6%),
and featured product recommendations
(5%).
Ed Kennedy, director of
Digital Commerce Strategy,
Episerver explained
that majority of consumers
come for something other
than buying a product.
“They come to browse,
look at prices and compare.
There is all these other
journeys that, as retailers,
we have sort of forgotten
about,” Kennedy said.
Most people (95%) abandon
an ecommerce website
without completing their
purchase because of weak
product, store or brand information.
Expensive shipping turned
the economy, through the
franchise business model.
“Franchise Matchmaking
Forum is a quarterly franchise
investor’s forum creating
opportunities where the
franchisor finds qualified
potential franchisees who
meet his brand’s criteria,
and the potential franchisee
meets the franchisor with
a suitable proposition for
his investment interest,” he
said.
The forum also created
a platform for participating
investors to meet and interact
with CEOs of successful
franchise brands, with the
CEOs and Executive representatives
of over 40 local and
foreign franchise brands in
off as much as 60 percent customers
while being unable to
find the exact product on the
online store put off 54 percent.
Price concerns dissuaded 46
percent of customers.
Ed Kennedy also noted
the strong correlation between
the total amount
of traffic to a site and the
amount of traffic that gets to
a product page.
“If you are a retailer with
a large product assortment,
search is going to be key.
How you set up search and
how you set up navigation is
going to be a very critical part
of the buying journey,” Kennedy
said.
The report recommended
that ecommerce owners need
to focus more on personalisation.
For instance, as many as
22 percent of shoppers have
received ads for products
they would never purchase,
while 16 percent have received
similarly misguided
product recommendations.
“We are at the point where
optimised recommendations
are standard across
most ecommerce websites,
so those automated product
recommendations are usually
where the problem comes
in. The algorithms are set up
in a very rudimentary way,
showing me what I recently
viewed or what I recently
purchased. Those are very
basic algorithms that make
a very poor customer experience,”
Kennedy said.
attendance.
Some of the participating
brands included: Meadow
Foods, Chicken Republic,
Rockin Jump, Bakaria, Avis,
Studio24, Sweet Factory,
Coffeeshop Company Tantalizers
PLC; House Of Tara;
Five Senses Schools, Best
Choice, Tolaram Group,
The Toy Store, Yogurt Frenzy
and Innova Pharmacies
to mention a few. While
some of the supporting
organizations included
Lagos State Employment
Trust Fund; Ciuci Consulting,
Enterprise Development
Center; Nigeria Investment
Promotion Commission and
Nigerian American Chamber
of Commerce.