Review: Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe by Roger McNamee

Title: Zucked: Waking Up to the Facebook Catastrophe
Author: Roger McNamee
Publisher: Penguin Press
Publication Date: January 1, 2019
Edition: ebook
Genres:

• Nonfiction
• Business
• Technology

My Rating: 4 of 5 stars

Roger McNamee, a player and investor in the tech world for over three decades, makes the case that Facebook, as well as other internet platforms are responsible for not reining in some very bad actors, harming our democracy and changing the world for the worse. He explains how he came to those conclusions and how he believes Facebook and Google, in particular, and internet platforms, in general, are not doing enough to correct the problems and making changes to their business models before irreparable harm results. He also discusses the history of the problem and what we as consumers can do about it.

This book is definitely a wake-up call concerning data privacy, usage, collection and the need for changes, as well as how Facebook and Google, especially, are allowing our democracy and society to be undermined by what he characterizes as "some very bad actors."

I am not now, and never have been a fan of Facebook, and from the time I first entered the online world, just looking at their account settings made me feel uneasy enough about the lack of privacy settings to decide not to have an account. And with the revelation of the influence of foreign governments in our 2016 election, the blatant untruths and outright hate speech, and the personal user data unabashedly turned over to third parties, I wanted to read this book to see if I was over reacting. Unfortunately, after reading this book, I realize I drastically underestimated the scope of the problem and the extent of the danger if something is not done to mandate responsible data collection, usage and privacy. It goes far beyond the personal implications. I hope everyone who reads this review will take the time to read this book and other resources listed in it and become informed and take proactive steps to force Facebook, Google, Twitter and other social media and internet platforms to make positive changes so that the internet remains a source for good and not a slippery slope for persuasion and manipulation.